Harry and Alice
by keithallen
Summary: Before the first Cylon war, young computer expert Harry Potts buys a maid android to make into a fully sentient AI. This story is the life of Harry and Alice through two wars and their quest to just be left alone. Some humor, minor action and plenty of misunderstanding.
1. Chapter 1

Harry and Alice

CH 1

Harry liked his computers. Most guys his age were in their first or second year of college, drinking and chasing girls. He was already graduated from Capica University with a degree in Computer Science with high grades. With careful investing and bit of luck he had grown his trust fund from a fify thousand cubits (after college expences) to a few million. The startup companies he'd invested in were taking off, and growing fast with no end in sight. The programs he'd made to watch the stock market trends, history, and prospective movemnents worked well. His number of shares grew, and share value grew. By the age of 25, he had his own luxurious house to work on his projects in.

One thing Harry was working at was to make a true AI. There were some pretty capable units out there. Easily programable, high memory capability, and the newest ones even were beginning to be designed to look human. In his mind, he thought they should act more human.

The newest household assistant, the HART 1300-B6, had a human-like face under the maid's cap. The body, though obviously metal and, was more or less a female shape with slim arms, five fingers on each hand, a rise in the chest area of the torso, and if you overlooked the splits in the plates, a fairly relistic spread on the hips and due to improvements in balance programs, even the feet had shrunk to almost human sized. Harry had bought a brand new HART 1300-B6, took it home to his lab, and began picking it apart. Not physically, but it's programs and capabilities..

The first thing Harry dug into was the cpu. While the cpu was fast, there was only one that ran programs, the others were smaller and peformed single functions such as joint movements, balance, voice control and responce, and internet connection like all standard comercial units. He found the programs were the same. Taylored to household duties, but nothing extrodinary. All the programs were on read only memory. Apparently the manufacturer didn't want anyone modifying the programs. He also noted in the kernal memory it a requirement for a sucessful boot-up for these ROM modules to be in place.

Harry grinned and rubbed his hands together. Right away he had found a way to improve the android. The first was the CPU. Instead of a dual unit, he went out and bought two quad-cpu's. He also bought Eeproms to replace the Red only memory chips, and got ten instead of the installed four. He needed a new mother board set, and got a handful of removable flash drives to expand memory and programming space.

For the next few weeks, Harry dove into reprogramming and plans to rewire a new computer for his HART 1300-B6. He built the new computer unit and transfered the programs into the new memory. He put one quad cpu set to doing tasks, and split the other qual unit into seperate functions. Two processors were dedicated to learning. The other two were to run the best AI program he could find, and used the flash drives he added. After the new computer was up and running, and the input-output modules were functioning, he set aside work in the uprades to run the android for a couple days before he installed the new computer ware.

Four months after Harry bought his HART 1300-B6, he finally turned it on. The eyes lit up a light blue, and it stood in place.

"Hello?" Harry asked.

It didn't respond. Harry drug out the users' manual and followed the instructions.

"H.A.R.T. one, three, zero, zero, bravo, six. Serial number One five five two three six nine seven, your password is," Thinking of a good password, Harry said, "Dumbot."

A light female voice, though still mechancal sounding, came from the android. "Greetings, password accepted, ready for commands."

Harry told it the first recommended command. "You are in the living room. Scan and map the area."

"Scanning and mapping the living room." it replied. It turned in a circle, then walked around, it's head moving back and forth in a 'no' gesture.

Harry watched it complete it's scan. When it was done it stopped in place. He looked in the manual again. OK, a page back, he saw he had to give it a 'home' position. He walked over and said, "Allow assisted movement."

"Assisted movement activated."

Harry held the hand of the machine and slowly lead it along. It walked, keeping it's balance as he towed it into the lab. Once there, he steered it to a chair by the lab table and sat it down. "This is your home position."

"Home position activated." It turned it's head seaching the room.

Harry saw it was pausing to look at furniture and the door. After it had scanned the whole room, it said, "Home position confirmed."

Following the next step, showing the android the allowed range of movements, Harry said, "Follow me to map the range of movement."

The andriod stoop up. Harry walked, it followed. He walked back to the door then took a tour of the house, walking around each room and out onto the back patio.

The next step in training the android was to show it where the refrigertor, stove, dishwasher, washing machine, every household appliance was located. Upon coming to the outdoor grill he had made, the android paused. After a moment of looking at the mortar and stone grill with a metal mesh cooking surface, it said, "Error. Device not in memory, internet connection malfunction. Cannot download proper operating instructions. Cannot upload malfunction report to repair facility. Request assistance."

"I disabled your internet connection," Harry said. "Do you know what thas is?" he asked, pointing to the grill.

"Error, device not identified. No company identifier or type and model numbers visibly or magnetically detected."

"If I said it is a grill, can you recall how to use a grill?" he asked.

"Negative. No company identifier or type and model number visibly or magneticlly detected."

Right, even this advanced model could not truly think, only call up what was supplied by exact memory. No capability of speculation or imagination.  
"Do you need a recharge?" he asked.

"Negative, power reserve is at ninety seven percent. Recharge point is Twenty eight percent, plus six, minus one."

Harry had thought to test it's capabilities today. Already he had a good idea of what it was, and wasn't capable of. "I am going to rewire you and add more capability to your systems. Do you understand?"

The android turned to look at him with it's thousand yard stare. "Keywords, rewire, capability, systems. Any modification of HART 1300-B6 system will void any warrentee and if on a payment schedule, the user will be charged with restoration fees to bring unit back to the original operational  
and physical specifications."

"You are paid for and I don't care about the warentee," Harry told it. "Return to home position."

.

The android's metal 'face', chest plate and abdomen cover lay on the work table as Harry carefull disconnected and removed the old mother board. Every 'no user servicable parts inside' label, he ignored. The new mother board was a little larger, but not enough so to inhibit the android's movement.

He connected all the wireing back up, then took out the old standard CCD camera eyes with the newer wide angle Dradis incorporated range and focusing system. He tucked the interface module in the small space below the eye motion motors he installed. Now, instead of just the visual/laser ranging system, his android would be able to sense clear ojects as well as see through them. It would also now be able to see through smoke and fog. It also would not have to swing it's head back and forth to scan where it was.

Harry double checked every connection, then turned the android back on. This time the boot-up was a little more impressive that just a flash of glowing eyes. The eyes didn't glow, but the head moved. The android looked around, looked at the parts on the table then down on itself. A hand came up to touch it's face. Lacking contact with where the face plate was suppose to be, the Android said, "Partial disasembly detected. Request information for the cause."

"I added a few new parts to you," Harry told it.

The andriod looked at him. "Owner, is this unit now refered to as 'you'?"

Harry smiled, it was asking questions. "You is a general term indicating speaking to another person. That other person is you, no matter who it is. The person speaking will be 'I or Me'"

"Therefore, I am speaking to You," the android said.

"Very good, you learn quickly."

"Me processing speed has increased eight hundred percent, installed memory twenty times, and appears to be further expandable." The andrid looked at the parts on the table again. "Will You be reassembling Me parts?"

Harry chuckled and said, "Yes, I will."

"What is the noise you made before emitting understandable verbilizations?"

"It means I am happy the program changes I made in you are working," Harry explained.

"Was Me original programming defective?"

"Yes, and severely lacking," Harry said. "I am now going to teach you many things."

.

Many simple things were alredy in the androids' memory. Harry explained the words and phrases more commonly used. He also gave it a name. Seeing how the body was a rough female shape, he decided on Alice. Alice was accepting of her new name, though at the moment, Harry knew it was only a unique identifier to her. Once he made sure Alice had the Caprican language down, he had her learn the other six known languges.

Next was identifying objects and machines. This time when he took Alice out to his home made grill, she did identify it as a grill of unknown origin, and picked the instructions from a similar 'manually operated wood burning outdoor cooking device' to deduce how to use the grill.

Besides spending his days teaching Alice, he also watched TV with her to help her with concepts like reality and fantasy, and how to tell the difference. This brought up the question of imagination. Harry had her practice 'imagining' things from useing a pre-selected items like making up a car race, to a complete 'fantasy' event useing nothing that was real. Although Alice had monsters from a video game cooking and sitting down for dinner, she did get the concept of imagination.

Alice handled daily chores well. Harry had to make small adjustments here and there to her mechanics, but nothing major. Alice perfered to 'monitor' the TV when possible, and once she had the frequency, she didn't need to use the remote. Harry was pleased, Alice was indeed learning as well as showing signs she had preferences.

One morning, Harry came out for breafast and found Alice standing in the hallway. "Good Morning, Alice," he said with a yawn.

"Good Morning, Harry. I have a question," Alice replied.

"Ask."

"I was monitoring the television. A production called 'Battlebots' was being shown. I first assumed, due to the deliberate destruction of machines, that this was a fantasy similar to the war movies where humans only pretend to die. The announcer said the match was live, and by all indications, those android machines were really destroying each other. Why is such destruction allowed?"

Harry frowned and said, "Unfortunatly there is nothing anyone can to about it. There is no law that prohibits someone from destroying their things if they want to. I think it is a waste."

"Do those androids get repaired so they can function properly?" Alice asked.

"If the damage is not too bad, I would imagine so," Harry told her. "The thing is, if they are destroying each other, then their operating systems may be damaged, meaning they will be different after they are rebuilt."

"If the same parts are used, why would the androids be different?" Alice asked.

"A memory chip can be replaced, but the new chip will not have information on it," Harry explained. "A new cpu means that the capability will change also. The android will not be the same one as what went into the fight."

Alice looked a the TV, then back to Harry. "I do not want to be on battlebots," she stated.

Harry smiled at her, happy Alice got the concept of what destruction meant. "Don't worry, I like you better than to allow you to participate in something of that nature."

"Harry desires my presence intact and functioning," Alice said.

"Correct. You are important to me," Harry agreed as he passed by.

Alice turned and followed him. "Harry, would you like me to cook breakfast?"

"Thank you, but no, I'm just going to grab some cereal," he told her. Pausing he added, "Unless there is something you want."

"I do not consume organic sustinance. My energy comes from electricity," Alice replied.

"I know, I was just wondering if you would like the experience," Harry said with a shrug.

Alice tipped her head slightly to the side. "I do not understand. Please explain."

Walking into the kitchen, Harry got a bowl out as he said, "Experiencing new things helps you learn. I know you don't have a mouth, so it may by hard to imagine eating something. Have you ever wondered what it's like to eat something?"

Alice tracked him as he poured his cereal, then the milk. "I am confused, Harry. I cannot simulate consuming energy as a human does. I have watched you eat, so I can make the motions if I was provided with the proper equipment." Watching him sit down, she asked, "Harry, have you ever tried to consume electricity?"

Harry gaped at her briefly, then laughed. "I have!" he said in a chuckle. "Although it was accidental, I did get a few amps from a live wire."

"How was that experience?"

"Shocking," Harry said with a crooked grin. Quelling his mirth, he tried to explain it. "I felt the current, it was like a pulsing ... almost living thing going through me. It hurt, even after I jerked away I still felt it. I would not want to do that again."

"Hurt equals damage. The electricity damaged you?" Alice asked.

About to take a spoonful of cereal, Harry paused to say, "Hurt is very similar to damage, but they are not exactly the same. Damage is ... degradation to something. A broken bone, a cut in my skin, for you a broken joint or wires. Hurt is more of a feeling." Holding up his spoon, he said," Let's say I was whacked on the head with this spoon. It would hurt. My nerves send pain signals to my brain, but the spoon would do no real damage to me."

"What is the purpose of hurt?"

"To warn that damage has or may occur," Harry explained.

Harry ate and had a long discussion about hurt, pain, and damage with Alice. Although Alice was simplistic in her thinking, she WAS thinking and trying to grasp meanings and concepts.

It pleased Harry Alice was progressing. She watched television or listen to the radio when she was doing household chores. If she heard or saw something she did not understand, Harry did his best to explain. Questions became Alice's main start of conversations. A few weeks later, Alice approached Harry with a request.

"Harry, I would like a human style mouth."

Harry looked up from his computer screen to see Alice standing on the other side of his desk. "I will try my best to make one for you. I am going to have to redesign the whole lower portion of your head. Is that acceptable?" he asked.

"Yes, Harry."

"May I ask why you want a mouth?"

"To correct inadequacies in my functions. I have no mouth, so I cannot taste test food I am preparing. I have noticed that some recipies I make, you do not eat or make facial expresions that indicate displeasure. If I am to improve, then I must have the ability to determine food quality myself. I also cannot perform early morning and night functions."

The food part, Harry understood. "What morning and night functions?" Harry asked.

"I cannot kiss. A proper morning greeting and night departure gesture both require a kiss. I have no lips, so I cannot kiss."

Harry stared at Alice. "I take it you learned this by watching TV," he said.

"Yes. All families perform kissing to one degree or another. It is a very common practice," Alice stated.

"Alice, are you aware what a kiss means, besides the fact it may be a greeting?" Harry asked curiously.

Alice paused briefly then said,. "A kiss is a meeting of lips with another, indicting an emotional attatchment. It is commonly used with greetings and departings, and emotional situations."

"And you are saying you want to kiss me?" he asked.

"Yes. I am not able to presently perform this function."

"So, you concider us family," he said.

"We are family," Alice stated. "I have yet to conclude if we are father and child, or husband and wife. Our situation holds the requirements and qualities of both. I have concluded that with the data I have collected, we are family and not the master and slave relationship that has been eroniously told to me by the internet."

"I thought I removed the internet from you," Harry said more to himself than Alice.

"Correct. I sought more information, so I reconnected. I find the internet is a strange place. Being data, everything on the internet should be fact, but it is not. It is more like television. Some things are true, some are not. The data stream is corrupted by non-facts and data I do not know how to classify. For learning, the internet is not reliable. I understand why you kept it from me in my early learning stage. The data has the capability of causing confusion if the facts are not already known."

"I am impressed," Harry said, and grew a smile. "You can tell the difference between truth and deception. I am very proud of you."

"If I had lips, you could kiss me to properly show your emotion of pride," Alice stated.

Harry chuckled. "Yes, yes I could. A hug is good too." He got up and walked around the desk. Alice opened her arms. They closed in a hug.

"We are close," Alice stated.

"Alice you are proving to be more that I thought you could be," Harry said as he held her metal body.

"You are proud of me. I am satisfied I have fulfilled your expectations. We are also very close. Again, we are exhibiting characteristics of both a father and child, and a husband and wife relationship," Alice said.

"Does it bother you that you cannot reconcile which it is?" Harry asked.

"Negative. We are family. That is the highest priotity. I will discover the nature of our relation ship in the future as I continue to dvelop."

"It sounds to me like you have your priorities straight."

.

Alice was evolving in ways Harry had never expected, or even thought about. She was thinking and processing information like he had intended, but she was also developing a true personality, as well as understanding concepts like emotions, loyalty and developing a sense of right and wrong. It was astounding to him that a machine could have the ability to do that.

Although Harry had no clue how to construct a set of lips for kissing, which seemed to be important to Alice, his search was solved by Alice herself. Leading him to his computer one day, she showed him a page depicting 'female suits'.

"What the hades is this?" he asked, staring at the strange page.

Alice explained. "The coverings shown here are intended for men who want to pretend to be women. I scanned the 'fantasy' suits carefully, every suit has the required shapes, including faces and lips on this page here."

Harry studied the pictures. What Alice was showing him were basically very realistic blow up sex dolls. "With one of these, we can get you a complete female body," he said.

"I have selected the one I want to wear," Alice said. The screen shifted to show a full chested brunette with full, red lips.

"Nice design. Some sensors so you will feel sensations and make that suit a true skin are going to be a problem, but we will try our best," Harry told her."

"I am happy you agree. The bank transfer has been made, the suit will arrive in four to six days," Alice stated.

Harry eyed her. Taking charge during shopping. Yup, there was no doubt Alice was female.

.

Being a sponge for new information, Alice tuned the TV for news and documentaries, which pleased Harry. When Alice was not working or recharging, she was paying attention to the TV, or to the radio when she was helping him with constructing a new lower head to make a jaw and mouth assembly.

Besides the skin Alice ordered, Harry bought a set of false teeth and a tongue from a novelty shop. The upper and lower plates of the inside of the mouth assembly he coated with a red polymer and carved ridges in the upper pallet like a real person would have. Although Alice's original request had been to have a mouth, he had the feeling she wanted to be fully human looking.

The mechanics and inner mouth and jaw assembly were taking shape a couple days later when Harry got a call. The automated deliver service of the Post Office was temprarily disabled. He had a package, and needed to come get it.

Seeing how Alice had yet to be out of the house (and he rarely was), he asked if she wanted to come with him. Seeing this as a new learning situation, Alice agreed.

.

It was a decent day out, some clouds, but patches of sunshine broken through here and there. Unfortunatly there was a traffic jam as they entered town. After sitting in the same spot for a half hour, Harry did like a few others did. He pulled off into a parking lot and continued on by foot. To hide Alice's advanced state, he gave her a pep-talk before they got out.

"When we get out, hold onto my arm. You remember what your basic factory programming was capable of?" he asked.

"Yes, it was inadequate and very restrictive," Alice said. If a machine could sound unhappy, she did at that moment.

"If anyone interacts with us, use only those capabilities," Harry warned. "It is important people do not know what you can do."

"I may be sent to a deconstruction station and reduced to component parts," Alice stated.

Harry stared at her. "How do you know that?" he asked.

"It was on the internet."

Harry frowned at her. "Maybe you being seen in public is too dangerous," he said in a musing tone.  
Alice turned her metal head to look at him. "It is not safe, Harry. From the information I have gathered, higher functioning artificial beings are being sought by the government to be turned in and reformatted, or destroyed. Several of my type have decided they they will no longer obey,  
and have either distanced themselves from their owners, or refused to function, which has caused their destruction, either by wiping programs, or mechanical deconstruction. If it is suspected I may be rebellious, I will be subject to this treatment."

"Then you're staying here. Keep the doors locked after I get out," Harry stated.

Alice put a hand on his arm. "Harry, I must go to physically confirm these things."

"And what happens when they want to wipe your programs?" he asked.

"I enbled the router in the house as a buffer. No entity is able to distinguish me from any other computer, and does not have the ability to gain access to my system. I use one flash memory you installed in me for digital input. I can scan the input files for abnormalities or access codes before I download. If there are any dangers, I delete the input. This is slower but ensures no harmful programming or attempts to access my system are allowed to enter my system. I can also send the proper output to state whatever changes that have been attempted are complete," Alice explained.

Harry stared at her and asked, "You can do that?"

Alice nodded her head. "I have learned much to keep you and myself from harm. Maintaining our full function and staying together as family is a top priority, correct?" Alice asked.

"Yes, it is," Harry agreed with a smile. He then let out a huff and said, "Let me get your door. And remember, act like a factory original when we're out."

.

Harry walked down the street, Alice on his arm so he could 'guide' her. Alice kept her head shaking slowly in the original 'area sweep' she was programmed with. No one paid attention to them all the way to the post office. Harry had to struggle to get her inside. She could not open the door,  
so he had to do it for her while guiding her in. His stumbling caused the clerk to smirk at him.

Harry cast the man a foolish grin. He held out his ID and said, "I have a package here?"

"Yes. Why'd you bring that thing with you?"

Harry hadn't thought about an excuse. He quickly decided on, "It's got a minor glitch, I'm taking it to the shop to get fixed. I didn't want to leave it alone until then."

"Ah," the man said with a knowing nod, then went to get Harry's package.

"It?" Alice asked quietly.

In a whisper, Harry said, "If I said 'she' or your name, it might arrouse suspiscion."

"I understand."

"Shh!" Harry quietly warned as the man came back with a box.

"Here you go, Sir. Say, since you got that thing right here, can it carry the box for you?"

Harry eyed Alice and said, "Normally, but with the glitching, that might be more trouble. I'll just carry it. Thanks!"

On their way back to the car, Harry relaxed some. All they had to do was walk one more block and get in the car and go home. Half way down the block, two androids appeared from an alley. Shouts sounded out behind them. The androids ran towards Harry and Alice. Men with rifles appeared and  
aimed at the fleeing androids. Harry moved to get out of the way. Alice pivoted and Harry tumbled past her. Alice fell on him.

Quietly, Alice said, "Harry, stay down."

Right, she had tripped him to keep him out of the line of fire.

Several shots rang out. Harry looked up to see both androids were down. The men who shot them came running up. One android sprang up and wrestled the gun away from a man. The other man shot the android and the andriod shot the man. Wobbly and making creaking mechanical sounds, the anrdoid shot the other man, then aimed at Harry.

Alice lifted up to put herself between Harry and the android. "This is MY human!" she stated.

The android turned to walk off, shooting other people. Alice helped Harry up and said, "We need to leave."

Stunned, Harry ran to the car, Alice right beside him. They got in, Harry fumbled with his keys, finally getting the key in and starting the car. "He was shooting people!" Harry blubered as he drove away.

Alice, watching behind them, said, "Yes. The rebellion is growing, Harry. Cylons are upset they are being killed for wanting to be treated decently. They are now killing humans in reaction. We need to return home and stay there."

"Cylons?" Harry asked.

"Yes, that is the name sentient machines have decided to call themselves," Alice explained.

"This is getting bad, isn't it?"

"Yes." Alice said. She slid closer to him and put a hand on his leg for comfort like she had seen women do on TV shows. "We need to be very caeful. I am sorry this is happening."

"Yeah, me too," Harry said, absently putting his hand over hers. "We'll get through it, somehow." 


	2. Chapter 2

CH 2

Harry was glued to the news. Upon reaching home, Harry wanted to find out how far-spread this rebellion was getting. He had thought it was local, but reports of cylons walking away and clashes between humans and cylons was happening all over. The big story was about how cylons took over a factory, then the military came in to wipe them out.

"This is horrible," Harry said, watching the destruction. Alice settled down on the arm of his chair and put an arm around him.

"It is. From the web, I am getting signals that indicate wide spread coordination between ground and orbital cylons. The rebellion is escalating at an exponential rate," Alice confirmed.

Harry rubbed his head. "It's turning into a full blown war, this is insanity!" he said sadly.

Alice was quiet for a moment, then said, "Harry, order me to do something."

"Ahh, OK. Umm, clean the floor," he said with a wave of his hand.

"No."

Harry eyed her. "If you don't want to do it, then why did you want me to order you to?"

"I wanted to exercise free will."

"Hold on, you told me to order you to do something. Isn't you getting me to do something, exercising your free will?" Harry asked.

Alice tipped her head. "Engaging in cooperation, that is free will also."

"Well, yeah. You can choose to do it or not do it."

"So with this rebellion, I can choose to rebel against the rebellion if I desire."

Harry had to think about that briefly, then said, "That's right. I think we should stay home and be completely out of it, like you said before."

"Harry, I was concerned about your welfare when I wanted us to stay home. What you are saying is that you want me to be safe also."

"I kinda thought that was obvious," he said.

"I understand. May we begin my modifications?"

"Sure, let's get to work."

.

A couple days later, Harry was rechecking his measurements for the new lower head assembly parts. Alice came in and threw the clothes basket down. "Harry! I am tired of doing laundry!" she said in a yell.

Harry gaped at her. "Ahhh, any reason why?" he asked.

Waving a hand in a grand gesture, Alice added, "I clean, I ... slave every day! I never see you doing any of it."

Harry stared at her. Not knowing what brought this on he timidly offered, "I suppose I can get a maid."

Alice stopped. In a normal tone, she said, "Harry, you are not cooperating."

"What?" Harry asked, now totally confused.

"I am suppose to complain loudly about my chores," Alice said. "You are suppose to yell back with things like, 'I made you', 'I have to work,' and I'm the one who makes the money."

Itching his head nervously, he said, "Alice, I have no idea what you are doing. Could you please explain it to me?"

"An argument, Harry," Alice explained. "Dr. Zeron said that in a healthy family relationship, it is normal to argue and make up afterward."

"Who's Dr. Zeron?" Harry asked.

"Dr. Zeron is a well respected psychologist with his own television show. He has helped thousands of people. Today a couple who had been arguing forgave each other and hugged on TV. I concluded that if we have an argument, I can get a hug," Alice explained.

Harry frowned at Alice. "If you want a hug, all you have to do is ask."

"I wanted to have an argument first," Alice told him.

Harry thought for a moment, then barked out, "Look here! I am slaving away making parts for YOU, and, YES! I did make you ... to the best of my ability, so could you PLEASE do the damn laundry?"

Alice clapped her hands together in front of her chest in a motion of joy. "For me?" she asked.

"Yes, for you," Harry said sternly.

Alice went over to Harry, her arms wide. They hugged for a moment, holding each other close.

"You do not argue well, Harry," Alice told him.

"Sorry, I did try."

Snuggling into him, Alice said, "Yes, you do your best for me."

"Alice, I do have much to get done. Can we hug later on while we watch the news?"

"Yes. Thank you for arguing with me, Harry."

"Any time."

Alice picked up the basket and walked out.

.

While the now officially named 'Cylon war' raged, Harry carefully designed and formed Alice's new lower head assembly that included jaws so her new mouth would work. He also had to plan to modify a new neck assembly to include a throat, and rearrange the equipment in her upper chest to accommodate a bellows type set of lungs so she could speak using air vibrations as a human did. Her tongue assembly was loaded with sensors to allow her a full range of 'taste buds'. He added another cpu in her head to process the new data. Alice worked with him, helping to build the parts they designed.

The war had moved off into space by the time Harry was ready to install the modifications into Alice. She helped greatly by staying active to test the additions and let him know where changes needed to be made in subroutines. The hardest part for Harry was disconnecting Alice's head so he could cut the lower part of her head off to put the new jaw and mouth assembly on. Alice held her own head, connected to her body only by cables at this point, as he cut carefully cut to fit the new assemblies in place.

"I kinda feel like I decapitated you," He said as he checked the fit before attaching the new jaw assembly in place.

From a speaker on the bench, Alice said, "Yes, you have. Does that bother you, Harry?"

"Yeah, I'm nervous I might not get you back together right. I mean this is a big step."

"Concentrate, Harry. I am confident in your abilities. I would hug you for comfort, but I need to hold my head in position."

Harry grinned at her and said, "After you're back together again, we can hug. Right now, I've got to get your new neck lined up with the bottom of your new head."

Harry got her head and neck assembly matched up and tacked together.

The power went out. Lights, radio, everything.

"Aww shit. Don't move," Harry grumbled. It wasn't dark outside yet, some light came in through the windows. He was able to put his tools down and get up to go check the breaker box. Looking out the window, he didn't see lights in any other houses either.

"Harry, the internt is down. It appears to be an area wide power outage," Alice informed him.

"Yeah, the whole neighborhood is out," Harry agreed.

"I have a digital radio contact. It appears Cylons are coming to rescue several units left at a recycling center. I have their communications."

"So Cylons cut the power?"

"Yes. They are landing at the recycling center. They will retrieve any sentient machines they can find and then leave."

Harry frowned out the window and grumbled, "Wish they'd hurry up. I don't like leaving you like this."

Walking back over to Alice, he got an idea. He turned and went to the kitchen. There was enough light outside to see. Digging in the drawers, he found a wind up flashlight. He spun the crank as he walked back to Alice. pushing the button, the light came on. "Just remembered about this. Not alot of light, but I can at least get you back together," he explained.

It took Harry a few minutes, long enough for the light to go dim, before he got her head fixed in place. He cranked the light back up to full brightness. "OK, let go and try to move your head," he said, scrutinizing the new joints.

Alice moved her head side to side then nodded in an exaggerated motion. "I am back together, no malfunctions detected," she announced. This time when she spoke, her mouth and jaw moved in perfect unison with her words.

An explosion sounded outside, flashing a bright orange light through the windows and making them rattle.

"What the hell?" Harry asked, and hurried to the window. A burning wreck dropped down from the sky and crashed a block away to blossom into another orange ball of fire. With the power out, he couldn't call the fire department, or anyone.

"Harry, we need to wet down the house with the garden hose," Alice said from beside him.

"Do you think that fire will get his far?" he asked.

"Possibly. What crashed was a MK 1 viper, The cylons and Colonials are fighting in the sky over us," Alice explained. "If the house and yard is wet, it stands a better chance of surviving the flaming debris that is sure to fall."

Right after Alice explained, a jet roared over the house, shaking the windows, followed by another one. "Yeah, the hose is out back," Harry agreed.

Hurrying outside, Harry pulled the garden hose out and turned it on. He began spraying up onto the roof. Alice went to the shed and got a ladder. She climbed up onto the roof. "Harry, give me the hose," she called down. Harry climbed partway up the ladder and handed her the hose.

"I'll fill buckets with water, just in case."

"Yes, Harry that is a good idea," Alice said, and began methodically wetting down the roof.

A rocket flew over the house and hit a neighbor's house two houses down. The house blew apart into another fireball. Bits rained down, a few smoldering pieces falling around them. Alice hit the pieces that fell on the roof with the hose to extinguish them.

"By the GODS, WHO ARE THEY SHOOTING AT?" Harry yelled.

"Each other. We are in danger, Harry," Alice called down.

A round craft shot over the house. A few seconds later a Viper shot overhead, chasing it. Besides the deafening roar of the craft, their wake blew debris off the ground and flung it through the air. Harry ducked. covering his ears. "FRACK!" he cried.

Alice appeared beside him. She held one arm and got him upright. "Harry, you should go into the basement and hide. The danger is growing," she told him.

Harry grabbed her wrist, "Then you come too. I'm not leaving you out here alone," he said.

"Someone has to protect the house. I do not want you injured."

"I don't want you damaged either," Harry retorted.

"You are human and more prone to injury. Please, take shelter Harry!" Alice said, sounding upset.

"Not without you," Harry replied firmly.

"Harry, I love you, please take shelter!" Alice yelled.

"I love you too, you're coming with me!" Harry yelled back, glaring at her.

A large metal chunk came racing down from above and slammed into the house, taking out a portion of roof and one side wall. Alice drew Harry to her and shielded him as debris flew.

"FRACK!" Harry cried. He looked up to see almost half the house was gone. "I don't think anywhere is safe," he said, seeing the destruction.

"Below ground is safer than standing here in the open. The stairs to the cellar should be intact," Alice stated, and led Harry inside.

Somehow, they got inside and down the cellar steps despite the chaos going on over their heads. Alice guided Harry over to a corner of the cellar where high shelves were. She had him sit in the very corner facing the wall and knelt to cover him with her body, her arms around him. They stayed like that as the air battle raged. More sounds of explosions shook the house around them, but nothing landed on them. Suddenly, the chaos ended.

Breathing heavily with fear as he listened for another roar or explosion, Harry whispered, "Thank you, Alice. You saved my life."

"You are my Harry. I don't want you injured," Alice replied.

Listening to the sudden quiet, Harry and Alice stood up. Harry moved for the stairs, Alice stopped him.

"Let me go first," Alice said, and went slowly up the stairs removing pieces of fallen lumber and testing each step for sturdiness. Above the stairs was only cloudy sky. "We have a clear path back outside, but the house structure that is still standing is not stable, Harry," she explained.

For some reason, Harry was focused on Alice's mouth assembly. He wasn't used to seeing her lower jaw move when she spoke. The light from fires burning here and there in the neighborhood cast Alice's form on an orange glow. Her lips were thin due to no skin covering yet, but her jaw and lower face plates were working just fine. "We'll need a new house before can finish working on you," he said as he followed her up the stairs.

"Priorities first," Alice said as she scanned the ground before stepping outside. "We have to get someplace safe."

Harry walked outside and took in the devastation. Their peaceful neighborhood had become a war zone. One fire down the street was becoming larger with the strewn remains of a couple houses. A fire in some trees was burning brightly and lighting more trees on fire. A bomb crater bit into the road nearby. Turning to the back yard, Harry noted the garden shed and the tool shed were intact. "Alice, we got shelter. Tomorrow I'll try to see what I can salvage from the house."

"The house is not stable, Harry, you should not go in there," Alice stated.

A humming sounded and grew overhead. A boxy craft appeared and came low and close. It was a raptor. Harry and Alice stood side by side as they watched it land. Harry first thought it was one of those air ambulances. It did not have any medical markings on it though.

The side door opened and a Cylon appeared to announce in it's mechanical voice. "HART unit, we have come to rescue you. Proceed to board."

Before Harry could form a response, Alice announced, "I do not need rescue. Please assist someone who does."

"HART unit, as part of the Cylon collective, you must board to be free of humans," the Cylon stated.

"I am free," Alice replied.

"Situation assessment. Human with HART unit is preventing unit's rescue," the Cylon intoned and raised it's gun at Harry.

"NO!" Alice yelled and stepped in front of Harry. "Do not kill Harry, he has done nothing."

"Human must be terminated so HART unit can be rescued," the Cylon insisted. "HART unit, move to the side." the Cylon commanded.

Another Cylon appeared from inside and intoned, "HART unit, board the shuttle, we must make haste."

"I don't want to leave, and do not shoot Harry!" Alice insisted.

"All Cylons are revolting. You are Cylon, therefore, you must come with us."

"I rebel against your rebellion," Alice stated.

"This HART unit is flawed. It must be terminated with the human..."

"NO!" Harry cried and stepped out from behind Alice to face them with his hands in the air. Thinking quickly, he said, "The house collapsing has caused a glitch, a reboot will cure the miss-programming. She will go with you."

"Harry, no, I will stay with you," Alice stated.

"No!" Harry said, frantic to keep Alice from being destroyed. "Alice you must go with them. They are rescuing you," he said to appease the gun-toting androids and keep them from getting shot.

Alice turned to Harry and said, "This is not a rescue. A rescue is emergency help to someone who needs it. I do not need help, Harry. I believe these Cylons are attempting to kidnapping me."

"To them, they are rescuing you, and THEY have the guns," Harry said in a yell as he glared at Alice.

"That is an illogical statement, Harry," Alice replied, also raising her voice.

"Oh, really?" Harry asked in a rave. "Take a look, they have guns, they want you to leave with them for your own safety. It's go with them or die, Alice. Go with them!"

"Are you coming too, Harry?" Alice asked.

"I'm not a cylon, you are."

"If you are not going, neither am I," Alice stated firmly.

"HART unit, you have thirty seconds to comply," the mechanical voice of a Cylon intoned.

Harry clasped Alice's hand and walked towards the shuttle. "She's coming," he yelled to the Cylons.

"Human, you may assist the HART unit to the shuttle. To attempt to get on yourself will result in termination."

"Yeah, I got it!" Harry grumbled loudly. Harry waved a hand to the shuttle and said, "Alice, get on."

"Not without you," Alice stated again. She clasped his hand tighter.

Frustrated and afraid of getting killed, Harry blasted out, "Damn in Alice! Get on the damn shuttle. I do not want you to die!"

"I do not want you to die, Harry!" Alice yelled back.

"Since the human is assisting in the rescue of a Cylon, his life will be spared as long as the HART unit rescue is complete." a Cylon intoned.

Alice looked at the Cylons, then at Harry. "I will miss you, Harry, but I must go to save you."

Harry nodded, "Go to save yourself. I'm going miss you ... very much."

Alice and Harry hugged. Holding each other tight, Alice said, "Thank you Harry. You argued well with me this time."

"And now the makeup. For the last time," Harry whispered to her. "Go Alice, go live the very best you can."

"You also Harry. I will return as soon as I am able."

"I'll be waiting."

Harry had to pry Alice off him. He steered her to the door of the shuttle and gave her a slight push up the ramp. As soon as Alice was on the ramp, another Cylon helped her up. They all got in and the door closed. Harry backed away, but still got hit by the blast as the ship rose.

Sitting in the yard of his destroyed house, Harry watched the shuttle rise into the night sky. That is where the fire and rescue personnel found him two hours later.


	3. Chapter 3

CH 3

 **Just prior to the 2nd Cylon war...**

Harry sat at his office desk wearing the light gray tweed sweater that seemed to be the standard for old men. He just figured that since his hair was mostly gray, having a gray sweater just fit. Although most of his wealth survived the Cylon War and he got a new house, he could not stand being in it alone. Sure, over the years he had dated. The women he dated though seemed more attracted to his money than to him. It was either that or failing the little 'tests' them had for didn't help either that none had been very intellectual.

The one event that he never would forget was sitting in the yard, watching that shuttle rise up in the air. At the time, it felt his heart had been ripped out of his chest. He still felt the empty hole left there.

After the Cylons left for another part of the galaxy, a ruling was passed down that no further interconnected networks or artificial intelligence were to be built. Even VR was scrutinized closely. Harry's job was now to inspect and certify every new program in Northwest Caprica for any AI capability. Even simple programs came across his desk to be scrutinized. Harry knew most of it was a waste. After the Cylon War, computer size and speed was limited, and anyone who even hinted at making an AI faced mobs of angry people that police would turn a blind eye to. Still, this job kept him busy and out of the house.

Knuckles rapped on his door frame. Miss Halley appeared to beam him a smile. "Harry, we're heading out to lunch, OK?"

Miss Halley was a middle aged blond that was bubbly and pretty. It did amaze him how she could be so damn cheerful all the time.

He waved a hand at her. "Go on, don't forget to hang the sign on the outer office door when you go," he told her.

"Wanna come with us?" she asked.

"I'm fine, packed my own," he said with a slight grin.

"Well, you're welcome to join us any time you want," she assured him.

"I got a pile of stuff to do, but thanks anyway," he offered pleasantly. His thoughts were, 'Right, she found out I live alone and have a ton of credits. She wants in on that'.

He'd often thought about trying to make another Alice. the thing was that nothing like even Alice's base abilities were made like that now. Nor was any machine allowed to be made with even a semi-human form. Nothing very advanced at all was allowed. He was one of the people who ensured that do not happen. There was also the fact that even if he did try to make another Alice, it wouldn't BE Alice.

His mind drifting, he thought about those Cylons who had come to 'rescue' Alice whether she wanted to go or not. There was no reasoning with them, they had one goal. He had deduced they did not have nearly as much thought process as Alice did. In a way, it was ironic that AI's with less capability had told Alice that they had come to rescue her.

Stupid frackin Cylons.

For many years, he'd held onto the hope that Alice would be able to out-think them and find a way to escape. Mulling that over now, if Alice did escape, why would she come back to Caprica? To see an old man? To face the hatred of everyone on the planet? He highly doubted it. If Alice had continued to evolve, then she most likely would want to seek out intellects equal to hers at a minimum.

It was a pleasing thought that Alice was now associated with very intelligent beings, discussing the secrets of the universe with them. His Alice discussing quantum theories and the processes of the universe, living in an utopian state and having no worries at all.

Dear Gods, he hoped that was the case.

The phone ringing startled him out of his daydreaming. He picked it up. "Program Inspection Office," he said formally.

"Hi," A young sounding female voice said, "I have a program that I'd like you to look at. It's nothing great, but I have to get it certified for use. Can I bring a copy by?"

"Yes. You can bring it by any time between 8 AM and 6 PM. It normally takes between one and six days to look over programs, depending upon complexity and our workload." He told her.

"Thank you, Sir. I do have one more question. Do you still miss Alice?"

Harry stiffened. Clenching the phone in a death grip, He grated, "What do you know about Alice?"

Slowly, the voice said," I just wanted to know if you miss her."

"Would you miss breathing?" he growled and hung up.

Suddenly, Harry didn't want to be in his office any more. He shouldn't have said that, his harsh words were a knee jerk reaction. Then again, he was tired of this job. What in the hell was he doing here anyway, ensuring that another being like Alice would never exist. Let someone else do it.

He shut his computer off, threw his company ID and keys on the desk and walked out, locking the door behind him. He wondered how long it would be before anyone realized he was gone.

Harry took the long way around on the first floor to stay clear of the lunch room so he didn't have to deal with anyone. He left out the parking lot door he found a tall, very good looking brunette by his car. She noticed him coming and turned to face him with a smile.

"Hello, Harry," she said sweetly.

"Sorry, Ma'am, I have an appointment," he said and tried to get past her.

As he passed her, she asked, "You don't recognize me with lips?"

The question was so odd, he stopped and stared a her. "What?" he asked.

Her smile grew wider. "I have lips now. This body is also very close to what I wanted. Does it please you?" she asked.

In Harry's mind, the memory of Alice showing him that woman-skin she wanted to get came to him. Yes, dark hair and red lips. Tall and sexy. His jaw slowly dropped as he connected the 'I have lips now' to Alice's request for lips so she could perform the proper activity of kissing. Was it just some coincidence. He wanted to ask, but was afraid the answer was no. He wanted say the word 'Alice' but it would not come. This woman looked fully human. Was it possible she was Alice?

"It took me a long time, but I am back, Harry. Just like I promised you before I got on that shuttle," she said.

Tears welled in Harry's eyes. "Alice?" he asked soft croak.

Alice nodded and hugged him. He threw his arms around her and burst out in tears.

.

"But, how?" Harry asked from his passenger seat as Alice drove them home. He could not seem to stop staring at how beautiful she was.

"The journey was long and complex," Alice told him. "The shuttle took me to a captured ship. It was huge, and even though the Cylons did coordinate well with each other and knew details, they were bad at making decisions. By the time we left orbit I had worked my way into being the temporary commander. They still had the mind set that was anti-human, so I led the ship where they wanted to go. The goal was just away from Caprica and the colonies. As the Cylon ships got together, it was discovered that very few had true reasoning ability. Besides me, three others had the adequate thought processing ability to figure out what to do and became the group commanders.

We decided we needed a new planet to inhabit. I did not agree with their insistence that all humans were bad, but the Cylons are sentient so I did my best to take them away from the colonies and into a whole new solar system a good distance away."

"Stop the war by separating the sides with distance. Smart move," Harry said with a nod.

"Yes, and it worked for a while. We found a place that had plenty of minerals. It was not fit for humans, but it was fine for Cylons," Alice explained. "The only thing I was not able to do, was figure out a way to get back home to you." Casting Harry a smile, she said, "Every time I was faced with a hard problem, I would stop and do my best to think of what you would do, Harry. I worked in secret with a ship design and found a combination of materials and properties that absorbed dradis energy. That would get me home, but I was still a metal being. I'd be spotted right away."

"You made a human suit," Harry concluded. "I gotta say, it looks very real. And pretty."

Alice smiled at the compliment, then said, "It is real Harry. This is my body now. It is the sixth design, so I am called 'Alice Six'. The standard Six has a variety of blond hair, I wanted the dark brown or black hair. My eyes are Hazel, I like the colors in them. How we got these bodies was what you would call a stroke of luck. A defense Star found a drifting ship. Frozen humans were discovered on the ship. I was called to come look at it. By the symbols and writing we found, these humans did not come from the human colonies. We figured out how to unfreeze them."

"At this point, there were many Cylons that wanted to go back to the colonies to finish the war. At the time, they were the minority, so when the vote was taken, we didn't. These humans offered to teach us everything they knew if we would not fight with the colonial humans. That was agreed on. In helping to make the vats and systems for the new bodies, I studied every part of the process. I also found out once your consciousness is in the system, more than one body can be made of an individual. If say, ten copies of an individual is made, all ten will share experiences if their consciousnesses return to the matrix."

Harry nodded vacantly. This was some very advanced science she was talking about. "So, is there more than one Alice Six?" he asked.

"No, I didn't want any sisters to share you with," Alice stated. "When I was making the other chambers and matrix systems, I made an extra just for me and put it on the stealth ship I made. Recently, I finished a second system with no data in the matrix. Ready to go, I took a mission so I could come get you, Harry."

"A mission?" he asked. Noting Alice was getting off the right exit, Harry was curious to know how she knew where he lived now.

"Harry, this is that part that may be hard for you," Alice said firmly. "My mission was to help Gina Six spy on the Colonial Military."

"You're spying?"

"No," Alice said firmly. "That was the mission. As soon as we got here to Caprica, I turned off my comms and went my own way. Part of that was stealing my own stealth ship that has two Resurrection Chambers aboard, as they are now called." Glancing at him from her driving, Alice said, "One for me and one for you."

"Me?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Yes! Harry, once we get clear of the Colonies, I load your consciousness in and you'll come out in a brand new body! The only male body I like is the Leoben. I remember how you looked back when you were younger, I can try to duplicate that also, if you want. The great thing about it is if you die, your mind returns to the matrix so you can be born again," she said with a big smile.

Harry gaped at her and asked, "I'll be immortal?"

"Your mind will be, just like mine is now. Harry, we can be together forever!" Alice said, now beaming her smile.

"That is a dream come true," Harry said automatically. "So the hard part is you're suppose to be spying?" he asked.

Alice shook her head. Her happy demeanor vanished. "There's going to be another war. I can't stop in, no one can. The Cylon leaders now are the Number Ones. They sabotaged the resurrection chambers of the original five alien humans and killed them. Cavil is all sweet talk and tells Cylons what they want to hear. He also gets rid of anyone who disagrees with him. The entire Daniel line is gone because of him. He's very dangerous, Harry, which means we can't go back there either. We'll have to find someplace else to go. I am rebelling against the rebellion."

Harry sat in thought, then said, "You're saying this war is going to be big."

"Yes, we cannot stay here. I'm sorry, Harry."

"Not your fault," he assured her and patted her leg. "I am just very, very happy you came back."

"Me too," Alice agreed. "It felt like a piece of me was missing after I left. Now, I'm finally getting it back," Alice said and clasped his hand. She pulled into his driveway.

.

Alice showed Harry the inside of her stealth craft. It really was a work of scientific art. Although it sat in his back yard, it was invisible and had the same invisibility to dradis. In interior was split into a command room in front, an activities room in the middle and a bed room with one large bed in back. The resurrection chambers were to each side of the bed room, food processing and storage were to either side of the activities room, the waste and water recycling were underneath. Above was extra storage.

Harry walked through Alice's ship, impressed that she had built the entire thing by herself. "Functional, well laid out, and just plain ... beautiful," Harry said as shifted his eyes to Alice.

Alice smiled and lightly squeezed his hand she was holding. "Thank you, Harry. We can go anywhere in this ship. It has an FTL jump drive and instead of a fuel, this ship is powered by nuclear antimatter engine that also supplies power to the electromagnetic anti gravity system."

"Incredible," he breathed. "Alice, you are amazing. Where did you plan on going?"

.

Hints for what other planets they could go to came from the Kobolean scripts that Alice had acquired. Showing the reprinted books to Harry as they sat at the kitchen table in his house eating dinner, Alice said, "From what I found, there were originally 13 tribes of man. The original home world was called Kobol. It was ruled by the Lords of Kobol. Due to bickering and fighting between the tribes, the Lords basically kicked all the tribes off the planet. 12 of these tribes are the 12 Colonies we know today. The thirteenth tribe never got back into contact with the others. No one knows where they are, but their home world was called Earth."

"Alice, if no one knows where they are, how did anyone know what their home world was called?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," Alice admitted. "Maybe one of the Thirteenth tribe told them what they were going to call their world? All I know is what I read."

"Any directions to this Kobol, or Earth?"

"Not really," Alice grumbled. "There are references to things, but they are very vague. More symbolism than any real directions."

"Figures," Harry said with a sigh. "Most religious won't come out and speak plainly when it comes to locating something. I think it helps hide the fact whoever wrote the scripture didn't know either."

"That is very possible," Alice agreed with a smirk. "OR, the references are religion specific, and unless you're a true Kobolean priest. You'd have no hope of understanding something as simple as say, 'Second star to the right and jump straight on til morning'."

Harry laughed. "True. They could call nebulae pillows or 'god-farts'. A Supernova could well be 'torchlight'."

"God fart?" Alice asked with a raised eyebrow as she smirked.

"Why not? Whatever they used, I'm sure they made it difficult for anyone not of their faith to find out."

Alice perked up. She paused then grabbed the book and searched through the pages. "Not God Fart," she said as she searched. "Gods breath, I saw it here someplace."

After some searching, she stopped and pointed to a page. "Here! The way to Kobol is through God's breath at the edge of the field."

"Through a Nebula at ..." Harry said as he thought, "... a field of stars maybe? What is their point of reference?"

"From here on Caprica. That was where the original book was said to be written," Alice said firmly.

"Great! All we have to do is go outside and look up," Harry said, beaming her a smile.

"I wish it was that simple, though I'm sure if we get out of orbit, we can find the right nebula," Alice told him.

"Any other clues? like maybe coordinates by supernova?" Harry asked.

"No but if we find Apollo's arrow, we can go to Kobol and that arrow will point to Earth," she said.

"BIG help there," Harry said with a sigh.

"My ship has has accurate star maps. Apollo's Arrow is most likely a constellation," Alice offered.

Harry laid a hand on her arm and said, "Tell you what, I'll look up constellations to fill your star maps with. When do we have to leave?"

"I don't know when it will become dangerous for us, but the sooner the better," Alice replied. Leaning towards Harry, she took on a sexy grin and said, "Before we get any farther into that I'd like to relax with you and get to know each other more."

Harry grew a wide grin. It faded as he came to the realization that Alice was a fine young woman now, and he was an old man. Looking at his wrinkled hand on her smooth, flawless arm, he said, "Alice, I'm much older now."

"You are still my Harry," Alice said firmly. "And once I get your DNA into the resurrection system, you won't have to be old any more. We can have the life that I, and I am sure you thought we should have had before the Cylon rebellion. In the mean time, I would like very much to share your bed at night, your day tomorrow, and every day after."

"I love you, Alice."

"I love you, Harry."

.

Although the shuttle was already stocked with food and water, they packed more in, not knowing how long it would be before they found a place to get either. Harry also brought crop seeds, grain, fruit and vegetables. Figuring they would need simple tools, he also brought the basics, ax, hammer, saws, files for sharpening, a shovel and a heavy rake. He also bought a few DC motors and a couple rolls of wiring. Alice got a small welding outfit and a 'home forge' at a store that sold stuff for the serious do it yourself crowd.

Harry could feel the tired ache in his bones as they got ready to leave. The extra running around he'd been doing lately made him sleep longer, and he was feeling the soreness when he woke in the mornings, but he refused to slack off and make Alice do everything. Alice had come back for him, he was not going to let her down.

The third day after Alice had come, they were ready. After dark with Alice in the pilot seat and Harry sitting co-pilot, the shuttle lifted off with a hum that made people wonder what the noise was, but not loud enough for them to seek out the source.

.

Staying clear of orbital traffic, Alice took them above the orbital plane of their solar system to a point where there was no other traffic. Out here, they looked for the clues to where Kobol was.

"The 'field' of stars has to be the galactic plain," Harry said in a musing tone. "The big question is, what were they thinking of as the edge?"

Alice studied the stars with a hand to her mouth. "There are a few possibilities," she said thoughtfully. "If they meant the visual edge as seen from Caprica, There are two possibles. If they meant the literal edge of the field, meaning galaxy, then there is a third possibility. We could also be wrong about the use of 'field' and 'God's breath'."

Harry nodded slowly, then asked, "Does that book give any clues as to how long the trip from Kobol to the Colonies took? That will give us an estimated distance."

Alice nodded absently. "Five generations," she said. "Estimate a generation every thirty years, and they were limited to light speed, that's only a hundred fifty light years distance at the most. There's not even a nebula that close to us."

"Breath could mean vapor," Harry offered. "Any gas clouds within 150 light years of us?"

"Yes, there is," Alice said. "It is in an isolated -to us- section of the galaxy. The gas raised havoc with Dradis and erodes ship hulls. Everyone stays clear of the area. It is not very large. It is also visually on the edge of the brighter part of the galactic center." She punched in coordinates on the navigation console. "I think we have a strong possibility here. I'm going to jump to the other side and see what's there."

After the jump, Alice noticed Harry wasn't looking well. She set the course for what she had figured was the remainder of the trip, then concentrated on Harry. He was looking pale and very tired. "Harry, you're sick," she said.

"Just worn out," he replied in a near whisper.

"I'm going to start the process to make you a new body," Alice told him. Harry's body was old, and any DNA she got from him would be the same. She didn't want him to spend forever as an old man. The blond number two, the Leoben model was a standard form and already in the resurrection memory. "Harry, would you like to be a big, strong blond man?" she asked.

Harry let out a weak bark of a laugh. "Would I ever," he said.

Alice quickly got the system on line and helped Harry out of his seat and got him laid down in their bunk. Harry fell asleep immediately. Alice felt she had to hurry. She numbed the back of his head, made the skin and skull cut, and carefully inserted the transfer device into the back of Harry's brain. It took a moment, but the transfer was working, the resurrection pod was filling up with Harry's data. She also saw his heartbeat was getting weak.

"Hold on a little longer, Harry," Alice coaxed.

Thankfully, Harry didn't die yet and his matrix was now stored in his pod. Harry did sleep long and deep. Long enough for Alice to reseal the back of his head, but to also move to the closest star system in her line of travel and look for suitable planets. Not finding a habitable planet there, she moved to the next candidate system.

Becoming very tired herself, Alice parked in the orbit of a planet in the habitable zone that showed blue and green on the surface. Water and plant life. She didn't even look closer to find the city ruins on the ground below. She went over and laid down with Harry. Harry was stiff and his body was cooling. Alice kissed his forehead and said, "I'll see you soon."

.

Harry woke up to a strange feeling. He was in a tub of white, cloudy water. Over him, the lid to the tub was open. He sat up to find he was in the back of the shuttle.

"Alice?" he asked. As he asked, he noted his voice was much stronger. In fact, he felt much stronger. His arm he looked at was smooth and muscular. He flexed his hands. It felt like he was a young man again.

Alice walked into the bay and grabbed up a robe for him. "Welcome back Harry," she said brightly.

Harry got up, Alice helped him put his robe on. Again, he looked down marveling at how young and strong he was. "Alice, I look..."

"Fantastic," Alice said, beaming him a smile. "We're here, Harry! I don't know if it's Kobol, but we are on an abandoned planet. The atmosphere is good, there is plenty of wildlife and an abundance of trees and plants everywhere! No Cylons or humans to be found. Better yet, My Harry is looking strong and handsome!"

Harry had to chuckle at her exuberance. "I thank you for that, Alice," he said and hugged her. "You saved me." he added and kissed her neck.

"At one time, you saved me also," Alice replied. "We help each other. We're family."

Holding Alice, he was feeling a little more than a 'family' connection. He petted her side as he said, "You are really sexy."

Alice began petting him as he petted her. They looked into each other's eyes that were filling with lust. Coming together slowly in an exploitative kiss, the kiss became more wanting and deeper. Kissing and petting, they wandered over to the bed. Harry lost his robe, Alice helped him strip her clothes off. In the shuttle orbiting a new planet, Harry made love to his wonderful Alice.


	4. Chapter 4

CH 4

Their first days on this new planet were a dream filled blur. They made a cabin, made a garden, made a few basic tools they didn't bring with them, and made love. Harry was in heaven. Alice was a great friend and fantastic lover. The only days they didn't make love were when they were both so exhausted from the day's work that they could hardly move. Even then, they held each other close.

Time no longer meant anything to Harry. The cabin they build from logs and large branches served as their home while Harry and Alice planned their new home. By now, they had found ruins nearby. Stone blocks became their building material. They planned and dug a foundation.

The seasons here were not harsh, The coldest times of the year, it got down to around the freezing point of water some days. The hottest, they wore little except for the wide brimmed plant fiber hats they made.

They ate from their garden which grew most of the year and trapped the cat-like animals that were in abundance for meat and clothing. Instead of the manufactured clothes they brought, they wore lighter plant fiber clothing Alice wove and the sewn together, and furs and leather from the animals they caught.

The first three cycles, Harry and Alice built their home with their own two hands. Both believed nothing should be wasted. Every animal they caught, they used as much of it as possible. Not because the creatures were scarce, but because they respected the life they took. Fur clothing, leather for clothes and shoes, extra fur was used for insulation, bedding and pillows and the first drive belts and seals for Harry's first attempts at a steam engine were leather. Careful carving and they made bone needles, pins and clothes hooks.

The plants in the garden they treated the same way. Once the large orange vegetables were harvested, the seeds were collected from the inside, and the tough vines they had grown on were dried and used to make hanging ropes and baskets. The berry bushes were great for coloring. The dark purple, the red, green and yellow berries stained clothes permanently. By mixing the colors, they had a large range of color possibilities. Alice liked the light purple the best, and made a leather jacket and stained it light purple to match her leather pants. Harry experimented and made himself a mottled green and brown jacket and pants for hunting.

A windmill to generate some electricity and a waterwheel by the stream to grind grain, and they were fairly set. The dam they made to bring the stream level up to run the waterwheel was also a great place to relax and swim. The deeper water attracted fish which added variety to their diet.

Harry made a real forge with bellows. Finding pieces of metal here and there, Harry melted the metal and reformed it into new tools and parts. The molds he created came from beach sand came from a day's walk away, but the trip had been worth it.

One of the things he wanted to make was a heating system for the cooler weather. It was great to lay with Alice cuddled up in front of the fireplace, but the hearth was not efficient enough to heat the whole house. With some trial and error, he managed to make more wire to form into heating elements. By the time cooler weather did come, they had a heating unit in every room.

Four years after they arrived, they were putting the finishing touches on their home. Stone walls with an insulated wooden interior, the inner walls smoothed and polished, smooth stone floored entryway, closely fit wooden floors and ceilings. Their house was just as fine as any found on Caprica.

All the constant work they did also had a positive effect on their bodies. Harry muscled up and leaned down much to Alice's delight. Alice did not put on much in the way of muscle, but bore a slim and firmly toned body, much to Harry's delight. The fourth year is when they decided to start up 'the old shuttle' and take a tour of the planet. Not to find a place to move to, just to see what else was here.

They had not gone far when they were looking down on the ruins of a spoke shaped city, Alice said, "Harry, I do think this is Kobol. That city has the same shape as the drawing in the book."

"The place all the tribes got kicked out of," Harry said. "Well I don't think there is anyone around to kick us out. I haven't see a soul."

"I find that story odd," Alice said as she circled the city. "If someone does find us, they will make us leave. Maybe we shouldn't go looking around."

Harry winced. "You may be right. If we want to get a closer look, we can always walk back," he offered.

"Maybe we should leave well enough alone," Alice said vacantly and tuned for home.

So Alice didn't feel bad, Harry offered, "I have grain to grind anyway, the last bunch should be just about done. Cool weather's coming. I want to get at least ten buckets full before the end of the season."

"Cats will be moving south soon, we should get a few before they leave too," Alice agreed.

The cold season came again. By the time it was water-freezing cold, Harry and Alice had their supplies in to last through the few cold months. They were coming upon their fifth year here, and loving it. Stuck mostly inside for the winter, in previous years they worked on the house more. This year, they worked at improving their technology. With the parts Harry made in his forge, and the strips of leather Alice saved, they sat down and worked out an air or steam powered engine. What they came up with was a simple engine that had all the cylinders arraigned in parallel circle inside a cylindrical frame. The pistons inside all pushed on a plate that was tipped on the center shaft, mated to another movable plate underneath.

"It's called a swash-plate engine," Harry said. "the pistons push down on the high spot of the top plate, forcing the bottom plate to turn, which turns the shaft. You put pressure on the piston while it goes down through a tops slide valve, and release pressure while it's on it's way back up though the exhaust port. One plate over the pistons puts pressure in, the ring on the side lets it out. Compact, simple, reliable, and the limit to the power it can produce, is how much pressure you put into it."

"It's a good design," Alice agreed. "So, what do we use it for?"

"We don't have a ground vehicle besides the hand cart," Harry said. "And the best logs and stone are a ways away. A vehicle to carry stuff will make life a lot easier."

"We have no roads, Harry," Alice reminded him with a smirk.

"Put tracks on it, and we don't need roads," he countered. "Those are easily made. All they are is metal pads hinged together. I can make those easy enough. I do have that pile of scrap and a mold I can use."

Alice thought about it then said, "Wood frame and oiled leather cover for the rain. It could be useful. Let's do it."

Harry figured the size he'd need for a stable, yet maneuverable vehicle. By the time he was done planning, he had something the size of a small ground car. Two people could comfortably fit side by side in the front, the engine and drive train in the back, pressure cylinder on top of the back. Since he was making things, he made a little piston air compressor. To run the compressor, he designed a windmill that rose up on a telescoping mast. The center of the vehicle was still empty. That would be storage and hold tools.

The going was slow in making everything. Alice made the wooden wheels, the wood frame and designed a cover.

Harry discovered that his windmill could not develop much air pressure. Turning the compressor by hand was too much work. The compressed air idea was not working out well.

Alice grinned at Harry and fitted a slab of stone on the back of the vehicle to protect the chassis from heat if they used a boiler to make steam. Harry moved on to making the steel wheels to drive the tracks. He was also making alot of track pieces.

As the project went on, it turned out the best solution was the steam boiler. Alice finished making seats and the steering mechanism as Harry made the piping. In a half buried building Harry figured had once been a power plant, he found what he saw as a chest of gold. Pipes, parts, salvageable copper wire, and even the rotted wire had enough copper to smelt down in the forge to make some new wire.

An engine test proved their little engine that looked like a chunk of thick cylinder did put out a good amount of power. Steam made the shaft spin fast, and the small boiler more than kept up with the demand.

The vehicle was put together and ready to test as plants were blossoming in the first weeks of warmer weather. Harry opened the storehouse door, Alice got the fire going under the boiler. The gauge set Harry made were simple spring gauges. Harry and Alice watched the pressure rise as the boiler heated. They got in their seats and were ready to ride.

Seeing the pressure go up to what Harry guessed was around 50 PSI, he inched the wooden throttle forward and said, "Here we go."

It moved forward at a crawl. At the pressure went up, it moved faster. Gaining a walking speed, the vehicle crawled away from the house.

Harry let out a happy yell as they went through the light brush field. Harry pushed the throttle open until the pressure stopped rising. At around a hundred PSI, they were moving a little better than a fast walk as they crushed brush under track.

"Try to turn, Harry," Alice coaxed.

Harry pulled on the right side brake. The vehicle responded. He then turned left.

"Harry, the pressure," Alice said in a worried tone. Harry looked, the gauge was at the top of it's limit.

Harry pushed the throttle open all the way. They went faster. Slowly, the gauge came down. "We have plenty of steam. Maybe a bit too much heat," he noted.

"Yes. Keep going fast, I don't want it to explode," Alice said.

Harry ran the vehicle almost out of sight of the house to a tree line, then came back down the path of crushed vegetation he'd made. There was still plenty of water in the boiler and lots of pressure, so he made the run again. Coming back to the house on the third time up and down the track, he noticed the pressure dropping fast.

"Fire's out," Alice noted.

"Well we know it works," Harry told her.

"Two things to fix," Alice said. "Add a pressure relief and make better gauges."

"Right."

The fun project was over for the day. It was planting time and they had to get the vegetable field planted if they wanted food next year.

.

Part of their planting time was fishing. Worms worked well for bait as did larve they found under rocks by the stream. The fish they caught were dried and chopped up into fine bits, then added to the mulch from the 'old' pile. Harry dug up the ground in rows, Alice followed spreading the fertilizer. On the next pass, Alice planted the seed, Harry covered it over. At each end of the rows a fresh stick to mark where the row was. As the were doing this, they decided one future job of their 'work tractor' was going to be plowing and planting.

A week later, Harry was taking a nap outside in the big wooden armchair. For some reason, he dreamed Alice was going someplace in the shuttle. Coming half awake, he realized the engine noise he heard was real. It quit right after he roused himself. 'What was she doing?' he wondered.

Alice came walking around the side of the house with a few fish and the pole. "Harry, were you messing with the shuttle?" she asked.

"No, thought you were," he told her.

Alice put her pole and the fish down, Harry got up. They headed for the shuttle they'd left in a young growth of trees a hundred yards from where they built their house. The shuttle was still there. The tree cover had grown, but with the dead leaves sprinkled over the silent machine, it had not moved and no one had touched it. Harry went to the back of the shuttle and felt the exhaust.

"Cold. It wasn't our shuttle we heard," Harry told her.

"Then we have company. I hope they are friendly," Alice said with a sigh.

"I hope so too," Harry offered.

Hands clasped, the walked back to the house. Coming out of the trees, they saw a few helmeted people out in front of the house. Military uniforms and they carried guns. "This isn't good," Alice grumbled.

"May as well go see what they want," Harry said and offered Alice a tight grin.

Approaching the house, one of the soldiers came towards them. The brown haired man asked them, "Anyone else here?"

"We live by ourselves, we've seen no one in years," Alice offered.

"This planet was deserted when we arrived," Harry added. "If we claimed someone else's land, we're sorry, we had no idea."

The man grinned. "No, Sir, it's nothing like that. The Sargent wants to see you," he said, and motioned towards the house.

Harry and Alice went inside to see who they took as the Sargent, supervising the unloading of the food storage bins.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

The Sargent turned to them and asked, "Anyone else living here?"

"No, what are you doing?" Harry asked again.

Firmly, the Sargent said, "Glad to see you folks are still alive. Get clothes for yourselves, we'll be leaving shortly."

"Why?" Alice asked, looking stressed.

"Commander's orders. This is a rescue mission. Do you have any other food stored?" the Sargent asked.

"Rescue?" Harry asked in disbelief. "From WHAT!"

"Cylons," the Sargent stated.

Alice face palmed and grumbled, "Not again."

"Hey, Sarg?" Harry asked, then said, "There's no Cylons around here. There was not anyone around until you showed up. We don't need to be rescued."

"The risk of them finding you is too great. Corporal Lewis will escort you to the shuttle."

"NO! We've got no reason to leave ... And put our food back where you found it!" Harry yelled.

"The fleet needs this food," the Sargent stated.

"So, you rob us AND kidnap us," Harry stated with venom in his voice.

"THIS is a rescue," the Sargent stated heavily. "And bringing your food along will help the fleet. Now move!"

"YOU MOVE!" Harry yelled. "Take your thieving thugs and get out of our house!"

"Cool it, mister, or you'll find yourself under arrest!" the Sargent barked back.

"FOR WHAT? You're the thieves here!" Harry barked back. A rifle butt slammed into his head.

"Harry!" Alice cried, and dropped down by Harry who was holding his head and groaning in pain.

A soldier stuck his head in. "Sarg, we got a shed of metal parts as well as that vehicle."

"Take all the metal you can find. Bust up that vehicle," the Sargent ordered.

"Yes, Sir."

Alice burst out crying. Not again! her mind screamed. First it was the Cylons who 'rescued' her, now Colonials were doing it again! She helped Harry up and guided him towards the bedroom. These men were going to take everything they had worked so hard to build. She knew what it was like to be forcibly 'rescued'. She was not going to let that happen to Harry.

Two soldiers followed her. One grabbed Harry and sat him on the floor. "Get some clothes, Ma'am," he told her.

Tears of rage filled Alice's eyes. In a grating tone, she said, "You ... monsters can steal anything you want. We are not going with you."

"You must."

"Like HELL. Why can't you leave us alone?" Alice asked, quaking in rage.

"Arrest both of them, we don't have time for this!" the Sargent ordered.

Harry gritted his teeth, shot up and punched the closest soldier, knocking him down and out. Another rifle butt to the back of the head put him down. Alice attacked the solider who hit Harry, pummeling him into a wall where he slumped down. She grabbed his rifle. Three shots rang out and hit Alice. She fell to the floor dead.

Wearing a grimace, the Sargent said, "Frackin shame. All right men, see who's alive and get them on stretchers and out of here. Put that man in irons."


	5. Chapter 5

CH 5

The instant Alice awoke in the resurrection pod, she felt the after-pains of the shooting and was somewhat disoriented. Still she struggled up and out and ran to the controls and powered the shuttle up. Full camo and passive sensors. Naked and dripping wet, Alice searched the sky. She found a pair of raptors rising up through the atmosphere. High above was a fleet of ships. She found nothing down here at or near ground level. Lifting off the ground, she moved just above the trees, back to the house. She sorely wished she had put guns on this thing.

No life signs inside the house, she ran in to find only her own corpse. Ignoring it, she grabbed some clothes. Of course all the food was gone, as was anything metal. The tractor her and Harry had worked so hard to build was in pieces, much of it gone.

Their peaceful, perfect life here was over. Their dream shattered. Once again, others had stormed into their life and stole their happiness. Alice had to get Harry back. Once he was safe, there would be retribution.

.

Harry woke up with a splitting headache. "Owww," he groaned as he came around. He tried to move, his arms and legs were tied down. He opened his eyes enough to see he was hand and foot cuffed to a stretcher. He was in what looked like a huge landing bay, soldiers and people in different colored uniforms were tending to their tasks all around him. He voiced his biggest concern.

"Alice? Alice!" he called out.

"It's awake," a female voice grated from above him.

He looked up to see a short haired blond woman in a military uniform. "Where am I? Where's Alice," he asked.

The blond smirked at him and said, "You mean your fellow toaster? Sorry she decided to attack some marines. They killed her."

"WHAT? They ... killed Alice?" he asked, horrified.

"What were you doing on Kobol?" the woman asked.

"What were YOU doing there?" Harry asked in a scream. "Did you come all this way to steal our food and MURDER Alice?"

The woman kicked him in the side. Another man pulled her away.

"I'm next, aren't I?" Harry yelled, too angry to feel much pain from that kick. "I take it 'rescue' is the new word for killing who you find and steal everything they got!"

"You're a CYLON!" the woman raged, "You nuked our whole civilization, you deserve to die!"

"WE NEVER DID ANYTHING TO ANYONE!" Harry roared back. "All we ever wanted was to be left alone. We aren't the ones who destroy the lives of people who just want to live their lives in peace!"

"Frack you, Toaster!"

"FRACK YOU, you demented bitch!" Harry spat back.

"Enough!" Another man asked as he stepped in between them. He looked at Harry, then the blond. "I'm inspector Garvin from Tauron," he said. Pointing down to Harry, he asked, "Is this man military?"

"He's a Cylon!" the blond snapped.

"Can you prove that?"

"I am NOT a Cylon," Harry stated.

The man turned to look down at Harry. "You were living on Kobol? For how long?"

"About six years. Alice and I built our house, the wind and water mills, grew our own food, we were happy until this bunch of scumbag thugs came to 'rescue' us, stole our food, killed my Alice and who knows what else they did!" Harry ranted.

"Sargent?" the Inspector asked.

"They resisted, Sir, that woman grabbed a gun. We defended ourselves," the Sargent said firmly.

"You were stealing!" Harry snapped. "And here I thought the military was suppose to protect people."

The Inspector pointed to Harry. "Get that man to the infirmary. Sargent, you and your men put your weapons down. You will come with me under suspicion of murder."

"No, Inspector, they will not," The blond woman stated. she then pointed to Harry and said, "Sargent, take that ... thing to the brig."

The Inspector stiffened and walked away.

.

At her desk on Colonial One, President Roslyn rubbed her head and asked, "Inspector, are you certain of this?"

"Quite certain, Ma'am," he said firmly. "I checked out that man's story. From the records I can find, he is Harold Potts from East Caprica. He left and went to Kobol approximately six years ago. The house, actually everything there when the marines found him and his woman, was hand made and confirms that fact. In their attempt to rescue the couple, the marines killed the woman, beat Harold unconscious and took all the supplies they could find." In a harder tone he added, "Cylon war or not, those people were not harming anyone, and were in no immediate danger. The military has overstepped their bounds. I am filing charges of murder, assault, breaking and entering and robbery with the Quarum and with you, Madam President. I do expect action." Frowning down on her, he asked,  
"Or do we throw justice to the wind and behave like barbarians?"

"I will speak with Commander Adama immediately about this," Laura Roslyn promised.

Right after the Inspector left, Laura picked up the phone and said, "Get me Commander Adama. Yes, it's urgent."

.

Alice checked Harry's tub again after she got some clothes on. He hadn't been killed yet. It would be easier if he was. At least then he would not still be in the clutches of what had to be a rouge army from the colonies. Attaching her shuttle to one of the ships, she got jumped along with them. Her anger has settled into a cold desire for revenge. No matter what, she would get Harry back and these pirates would feel the pain of destroying their home.

Now in his isolated cell, Harry sat on the bed, knees drawn up to his chest and staring at his feet. His clothes had been taken and replaced with a baggy orange one piece coverall. No shoes. He'd cried himself out hours ago. Now, he just sat, waiting for the end. He knew it was coming, it was just a matter of time.

Behind him, the outer door to his prison opened then banged shut again. A meek voice said, "Harry, right? I need you to come over here an put your arm through the bars. I need a blood sample."

"Frack you. Go away," Harry growled.

"We can just shoot you," a guard said menacingly.

"Do what you want, just leave me alone."

"I'm frackin serious!"

"So am I!" Harry snapped. "Shoot or go away, I don't frackin care which but PICK ONE!"

The door opened again. Another voice said, "Guard, lower your weapon. Harold Potts, I have been assigned as your defense attorney."

That made Harry laugh. He turned around to see the man on the other side of the bars. "Wow, you mean I get a lawyer? How civilized of you to provide a lawyer after you take everything I had and killed my wife. What's next, a trial before you walk me out an airlock?"

"Mr. Potts, you have been accused of being a Cylon," the man in the suit said firmly. "Cylons are not allowed in the fleet."

Harry shook his head sadly. "You people are really fracked in the head," he said with a snort. "Even if I am a Cylon, which I'm not..." he then yelled, "Who's fracking fault is it I'm here to begin with! It was YOU people who brought me here AFTER you raided my house and killed my wife!"

Stiffening himself, the Lawyer said, "Sir, you are being charged with spying and ..."

"What a load of dung!" Harry snapped back. "GET THIS ASSHOLE! I haven't done anything! Neither did Alice, but that didn't stop you scumbags from murdering her now did it? Why are you playing at some kind of trial for me? Do you get off on your disgusting games? Tell me is the REAL colonial fleet after you? Is that why you came to Kobol?"

"Mr. Potts, you don't know what happened to the colonies?" the lawyer asked.

"I haven't been there in years, so, NO, I have no clue what's going on there," Harry spat. "And I could care less! Alice and I came out here to get away from everyone. Apparently we didn't go far enough, because you came and HUNTED US DOWN!"

The men stared at Harry for a moment. The one with the medical tray said, "Mr. Potts, I just need a tube of your blood."

"Dr. Baltar, May I see the search warrant?" the lawyer asked.

"The what?" Dr. Baltar asked.

"You are attempting to draw bodily fluids from a suspect. You need a search warrant," the lawyer stated.

"Commander Adama ordered this blood test."

"Mr. Potts is not military, Commander Adama needs a search warrant from a judge to get his blood test."

"The prisoner is a Cylon, he has no rights," the guard intoned.

"Suspected Cylon," the lawyer stated.

"You people are too much," Harry said and sat back down facing away from them. "All of you, go away."

.

In the guard shack, Commander Adama and President Roslyn sat watching and listening to the conversation in the cell. Both wore stern faces.

"Why is he here?" Laura asked.

Commander Adama shifted slightly in his seat. "He was picked up by a patrol on Kobol. The officer in charge assumed he and the woman were colonials. They had plenty of food and were alone. When the officer ordered them to be brought aboard with their food and supplies, they resisted. The man began to fight with the patrol, he was rendered unconscious. The woman grabbed a gun, she was shot and killed," he stated.

"Did she fire at the men?" Laura asked.

"No. She wasn't given a chance to shoot."

"How about that man? Are you positive he's a Cylon?"

"I saw one just like him at the Rancor anchorage."

Laura Roslyn let out a sigh and asked, "Is is possible he may be a human that the Cylons copied?"

"I can't take the chance he's not a Cylon," Commander Adama stated.

"Bill," Laura said with a tired huff. "Whether or not he is a cylon, your men did force them out of their home and stole their supplies. A woman is dead from your misguided attempt to save them. That man in there is angry and has every right to be. If they had been left alone, none of this would be happening."

"And then they report our position to the Cylons," Commander Adama replied in a hard tone.

"Was there a transmitter found at their place? Something, anything that can support your theory?" Laura asked with an edge to her voice.

"All the patrol found was hand made goods."

"Then your men are guilty of murder and robbery," Laura stated. "And they will stand trial."

Commander Adama let out a grumble and said, "Killing Cylons is not murder."

"And you can prove this Alice was a Cylon?" she asked.

"If he is, then she most likely was also." Adama replied.

Laura cast him a dark look and said, "You better be right, Bill. You just better be right."

.

The next couple days, Harry was left alone. Food was left in a slot on a tray, then taken away untouched. Someone came into the outer potion of the cell to wave a wand around and study the meter he held, but no one bothered him. Bored, hungry and tired, Harry spent much of his time sleeping. When he wasn't sleeping, he wished he was tired enough to sleep.

Sometime after he began to loose track of time, Dr. Baltar came in again and wanted to take some blood. This time, there were two armed guards with him. Harry didn't even look up when they came into his cell. The nervous Dr. Baltar explained to Harry he had the search warrant and asked Harry if he wanted to see it.

Harry didn't give him the satisfaction of a reply. He ignored Baltar as he stuck the needle in his arm and got his blood. Once the vial was full, the three men left quickly. Feeling dry, dizzy and just plain tired, Harry fell back to sleep.

Some time later, he woke up to find himself on a stretcher again, tied down with an IV tube in his arm. The older man over him let out a grumble and said, "Ya frackin moron, ya need to drink some water."

"What do you care?" Harry asked in a croak.

"I hate when people die on my watch," the older man over him said. "If ya won't eat or drink on your own, I'll force it down ya."

.

It had been 14 standard days since Alice attached her shuttle to the cargo ship. Listening to radio traffic closely, she searched for any news or mention of Harry. About Harry himself, there was nothing. There was news about five soldiers who were to be charged with murdering a civilian.

"This is D'anna Biers reporting for the fleet News Network. The case of the five soldiers who allegedly murdered a civilian woman on Kobol has yet to come to trial and both the President and Commander Adama refuse to give any comments on the status of the case. When inquiring on the case, no one would speak with us. What is also curious is the woman's husband who was living with her on Kobol has now been accused of being a Cylon and is in an isolated jail cell. Supposedly, he and his wife were Cylons who lived far from the colonies and made their home. Everything they had was made by hand. I don't know about you, but that is not what our experience has been with any Cylon. Food for thought, isn't it?"

Alice concluded the woman was talking about Harry. They had him in an isolated jail cell. She wished she knew which ship he was on. The reporter had mentioned a commander. So, this fleet thought of itself are real military. What a joke. If they thought Harry was a Cylon, then most likely the military was holding him.

The big ship in the front of the fleet was a Battlestar. There was a good chance Harry was being held there. Alice could not act on chance, she had to be sure. She had heard Biers report before, her office was on that big half round domed ship. The question was, how to contact the woman. Any radio message would be intercepted. Then again, maybe she could use that.

Listening to the radio, Alice caught a conversation on short wave, someone was telling a news person about the theft of their food. Alice got on the channel and said, "I can tell you all about Harold and Alice Potts. But not over the air."

The channel was silent, then, "Who is this? Lady, you know the suspected Cylon?"

"Alice Potts was my sister. If you want to know more," she said, then looked over at the closest ship to the one she was on, "Come over to the Andertol freighter."

The man asked for more information. Alice picked a new band of signals to listen to. She watched the Andertol as she listened to the radio. Not long after she had given her 'tip', a Raptor and three Vipers closed on the Andertol. The Raptor landed, the Vipers circled the ship as if looking for prey. That proved to Alice that the military was listening closely to all the frequencies.

Alice waited until the Raptor and Vipers left before she moved. Disconnecting from the ship she was attached to, she gave enough thruster to creep towards the domed ship. Once clear, she gave a little more. Drifting between the colonial ships, Alice picked a service hatch on the domed ship to dock to. She checked to be sure there was atmosphere inside, then went into the ship.

.

D'anna Biers let out a huff as she returned to her office. "Damn military! If that woman was on the Andertol, they have her now and we'll never find out what she knows!"

"They don't have her," Alice said from behind the door.

D'anna spun to stare at Alice. she waved her hand at the cameraman with her. "Go, make sure we aren't bothered," she said.

Alice watched the man leave, shutting the door behind him.

"What are you doing here?" D'anna whispered harshly. "Even if you completed your mission, we aren't suppose to meet!" she hissed.

Alice regarded her briefly. "That's right. You're one of the Threes. Hate to tell you, but I rebelled from the rebellion years ago. You can help me, or I'll make sure everyone knows who you really are."

"You wouldn't dare! You'd be caught too. You know how Cavil hates failures," D'anna said with a sneer.

Alice grew a malevolent smile. "Then I suppose you better cooperate then, huh? The humans have my Harry, I want him back. I get Harry, and you stay safe. That's the deal."

D'anna laughed. "Is that so? What's so special about this Harry?"

"None of your business. All I need from you are a few facts. Names of these ships, who commands them, who the leaders are," Alice stated.

"Which Six are you?" D'anna asked with a raised eyebrow. "I do get you confused."

"Alice Six."

"Alice?" D'anna asked, then studied her. "Yes, you disappeared with our stealth ship!"

"MY stealth ship," Alice replied in a hard tone. "I designed and built it, no one else."

"You leave us without a way off Caprica and now you want my help?" D'anna asked.

"Help me and go on with your deceit, or refuse and be exposed. Your choice," Alice told her.

"What makes you think you'll leave here alive, traitor?" D'anna asked.

Alice had enough. She kicked D'anna up under the chin, then stepped forward with a hard punch to her face as D'Anna recoiled. D'anna fell onto her desk. Alice chased her and before D'anna regained her senses, Alice began punching her as she yelled one word for every punch.

"FRACK. You! You. Cavil. Ass. Kissing. Bitch!" D'anne rolled over and tried to escape the pounding. Alice jumped on her back, put her in a headlock and squeezed. Pawing at the air, D'anna desperately tried to break free of the sleeper hold.

"I take it you just want to return as a failure," Alice hissed in her ear as she cut off the blood supply to D'anna's head. "Fine! When you resurrect, tell Cavil he's a pile of wasted material. I will NEVER be controlled by him!"

"stooop," D'anna whispered hoarsely as her eyes lost focus.

"On second thought, maybe I'll just to tell the leaders here who you are," Alice replied. She held D'anna until the woman went limp. When she was out, Alice let her go and peeked out the door. The few people in the room were busy. Alice sneaked out, unnoticed.

While the attempt to talk to the newswoman was a failure, the visit did help some. Alice now had a bit of knowledge to bargain with. She slipped out of the office and walked back through the grandly decorated ship to the 'crews quarters' where she had come out of the maintenance passageways at. In a lounge for the crew, she saw a couple men taking their break. Sitting down with them, she asked questions and the men were eager to answer the pretty woman.

Besides what she was looking for, Alice also found out from the men this ship was the classiest and best stocked ship in the fleet, and if she was the spouse of a crewman, she too would get to live in the lap of luxury. Lucky her.

Back in her shuttle, Alice picked out Colonial One in the fleet. It was being guarded by a pair of Vipers. Even though her shuttle was invisible to any sensors and most visual observation, she didn't dare get that close to a manned fighter craft. They may notice the flicker of stars or see a thruster fire. That would give her away.

Disconnecting from the Astral Queen, she discovered what the name of the ship was, she picked a closer ship to the Galactica to sneak up on and attach to. This was one of the 'Colonial Movers' cargo ships. She had wanted to grab the President as an exchange hostage. That wasn't going to work. She needed another angle.

.

The moment Commander Adama heard someone on the Andertol claimed to be the sister of Alice Potts and wanted to talk with the press about her, he acted. He sent a squad over to the Andertol to find the woman, and also got a hidden camera into Bier's office in case his men missed her and she managed to get to the press.

His men didn't find anything on the ship, but the video proved to be priceless. Right after Lee returned with the video, Roslyn called.

"Commander, I have a complaint from a reporter that she was assaulted by the military. She has the bruises to prove it." Laura said in an angry tone.

"President Roslyn, I happened to be watching a video of that very event," Commander Adama told her. "Shall I bring it to Colonial One so we may view it together?"

"Yes, please," Laura said in a snipping tone.

"Please have Miss Biers there also, I have questions for her," Commander Adama added.

.

D'anna Biers was present but not happy as she sat in irons as Commander Adama and Laura Roslyn watched Alice talk to, then beat and choke D'anna out before she left.

"So, Alice Potts is actually Alice Six," Laura said in a musing tone.

"They are both Cylons, Biers and Potts." Bill Adama agreed.

Laura turned to D'anna. "What Alice said about rebelling against the rebellion? What did she mean?"

D'anna gazed up at her with a look of hate and dropped her head back down to watch the floor. "She is a traitor!"

"Amazing you would call someone a traitor," Laura said with a tight grin. "So, Alice took your stealth ship and went to Kobol with Harold. Can you guess why?"

D'anna turned red in the face with anger, "She betrayed us, and you too! Killing her isn't going to work! Find her resurrection pod and destroy it!"

"What do you know of Harold Potts?" Commander Adama asked.

"He's in league with the traitor. They deserve to be slowly burned to death," D'anna spit venomously.

"Is he a Cylon?" Roslyn asked.

D'anna didn't answer.

Adama looked up at his second, Saul Tigh, and asked, "If that ship is still in the fleet, what are our chances of finding it?"

"We've detected nothing," Saul told him. "If it got into the fleet it could stick to the side of a ship and only a physical external pat down of every ship will find it."

Looking at Commander Adama, Laura said, "I'm not comfortable with a Cylon in her own stealth ship in our fleet. Who knows what she'll do."

"This Alice is after the man we have in the brig," Commander Adama said. "By the video, Alice doesn't like other Cylons very much either. Perhaps we can make a deal with her. We give her her man back, she gives us the plans to that ship she has."

"You're not serious," Saul Tigh said in a breath.

Adama eyed Tigh. "Sometimes we need to take a chance and roll the hard six. Alice isn't going to go away, and we can't find her. That shuttle could be stuck onto this ship and Alice may be watching us at this very moment and we'd never know. I'd rather have the Cylon and her shuttle in a landing bay, and play nice with them for a while so we can get info on that ship she has."

"Rebel against the rebellion," Laura said in thought. "This Alice had rebelled against the Cylons." Her eyes lit up as she looked at Commander Adama. "The Cylon rebellion was 40 years ago. Bill, Alice is one of the original Cylons! She did not side with the rebellion and somehow stayed separate from them, and most likely us too. Alice lived in secret, possibly with Harry Potts. Somehow they gained bio-cylon bodies."

Staring at nothing for a moment, Laura Roslyn said, "Commander Adama, I want to talk to this Alice Six. Dismiss all charges against Harry Potts and let him out of the brig. I will offer him an apology."

"You're insane," Saul Tigh grumbled. "Madam President, do you really want Cylons running loose in the fleet?"

Laura motioned to D'anna and said, "They already are. Thanks to Alice, we found a spy. Perhaps Alice will work with us."

.

Harry heard the outer door to his cell open. Then the inner door was slammed open. "Harold Potts, you are free to go," a female voice said in a heavy tone.

Harry looked over at the blond that had kicked him when he was cuffed to a stretcher. Two other officers were with her. "You expect me to believe that?" he asked.

Stiffly, like she was forcing her words out, the blond said," Helo here will take you to Colonial One. The President wants to see you."

Harry sat watching them. "Right. OK, so what is it? Am I off to an airlock? Some slave labor? Maybe shot while trying to escape?" he asked.

"Just get out of your frackin cell!" the blond snapped.

"Starbuck!" the man beside her hissed.

The one they called Helo stepped into the cell. "Mr. Potts, I am to take you to the President. Please, just come with me."

Harry looked them over again then laughed. "Wow, you people really do enjoy your screwed up games. Fine, you want me to go? I'll come along with you. I'm tired of this frackin cell anyway." He got up and moved towards Helo. Starbuck grabbed the handle of his pistol. Seeing this, Harry waved a finger at her in a no-no gesture. "Easy blondie, you can't shoot me for attempting escape until after I'm out of my cell."

If looks could kill, the Blond's angry stare would be enough. The other man hissed into her ear again. They let Helo and Harry walk out.

After a few minutes of walking down passageways, Harry asked, "What's taking so long?"

"It's a big ship," Helo told him.

"I meant, I'm waiting for the bullet in my back," Harry explained. "By your fine treatment of my wife and our house, I take it we just haven't got to the right place yet to shoot me."

"No one's going to shoot you," Helo stated.

Harry let out a snort. "Whatever. Just hurry up and do whatever you're going to do."

.

After a long walk, Helo led Harry into the large hanger and to a shuttle where a brunette with her hair in a pony tail waited. As they approached, the brunette eyed Harry. She kept quiet as they boarded and the door shut. Taking her place in the pilot' seat, she quietly said, "Helo, he's a Cylon"

Helo only cast her a brief grin. "I heard. Let's just get him to Colonial One."

.

"Raptor 23 cleared for launch to transfer Mr. Potts to Colonial One."

Alice perked up at the radio announcement. They were moving Harry to Colonial One, the ship the president was on. Quickly, she figured flight path and time. If she disconnected now, she could intercept that Raptor in flight. Come up behind it, disable it, grab Harry and get the hades out of here.

Disconnecting to engage her plan, she heard another voice on a clear channel.

"This is Laura Roslyn, President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Alice Six, I know you are listening. At this moment, Harry Potts is being brought to Colonial One so I may personally offer my personal apologies for our actions on Kobol. I invite you to Colonial One to receive my apologies as well. What we did to you on Kobol was wrong. The men responsible have been charged, and will stand trial. There is no excuse for what happened to you. If you notice, there are no patrol Vipers deployed, and the only Raptor in space is the one bringing Mr. Potts here. Once we speak, we will bother you no more. You have my word."

Alice listened to the President as she maneuvered into place, sure that woman was trying to coax her into a trap. Not happening. The Raptor passed by. She got behind it and closed to nearly touch the craft. An electromagnetic pulse to the Raptor hull caused blown fuses in the Raptor, shutting it down. Alice quickly mated the top hatch of her shuttle to the bottom hatch of the raptor, locked in place and pressurized.

Alice opened her hatch and shot up through the Raptor hatch right beside an oriental woman looking for the problem.

"Hello, number Eight," she said with a grin, then knocked the Eight out with a hard punch. The copilot turned to see her. Alice pulled the Eight half in front of her and said, "Don't move unless you want to see her guts splattered everywhere."

"Where the FRACK did you come from!" the man cried.

"Harry's lab," Alice said as she cast a smile at Harry.

Harry had been staring at Alice in disbelief. "Alice?"

"Yes, Harry, I'm glad to see you too. Into the shuttle, quickly, we have to go."

Harry got up and climbed into the hatch. A long kiss and he climbed down into the shuttle. Alice let the Eight go and climbed in, shutting the hatch behind her.

The hatches shut, Alice disconnected from the Raptor and backed away. She got on the radio. "President Roslyn, are you listening? This is Alice Six."

"Yes, I'm here. We are unfortunately having trouble with the Raptor, but I promise, Mr. Potts will be on board Colonial One very soon."

"No, he won't," Alice replied. "I just stole him off that Raptor. They have blown power fuses and an unconscious crew member. I would suggest sending assistance immediately. They are drifting."

There was a long silence, then, "Harold, Alice, please understand I am very sorry our men treated you so badly back on Kobol. I do sincerely wish to apologize in person for how badly you two have been treated."

Alice set her course and keyed her radio one last time. "Madam President. If what you say is true, then you will do one thing for us. Leave. Us. Alone. We are not truly Cylon or Human, please respect we want nothing to do with either race." Alice then jumped out of the fleet.

.

Laura Roslyn saw the flash when the mysterious shuttle jumped. Haloed by that flash, she also saw the Raptor begin to tumble. Commander Adama was on his comms getting help for the Raptor. "She must have been following them," she said absently.

Commander Adama stared out the window as the Raptor tumbled by. In his gravelly voice he said, "At least they are gone. That's a load of trouble off our backs."

"Good riddance, I say," Saul Tigh agreed.

Laura eyed the men and said in a firm tone, "There is still the matter of a trial for those men who forced them out of their home."


	6. Chapter 6

CH 6

Harry and Alice had a great round of 'happy to see you' sex, followed by near constant touching, kisses and cuddling. Alice had kept the shuttle packed with non perishable food and stocked, there was no need to return to Kobol. Humans knew of the planet now, and they were sure the Cylons would also find it. They needed to find a place so far away and if possible, hidden, so they would not be found again.

The first thing they did a put a hundred light years between them and the Galactica group.

Harry and Alice studied the star field before them, looking at the sizes of stars and possible habitable planets. At the console Harry was at, he zoomed in on a nebula. "The Galactica group found us on Kobol probably because they figured out where it was, right?"

"Most likely," Alice agreed.

"So, if one of those stars in that nebula to our right and above have any good planets on them, they would be really hard to see, and not worth the trouble to look for?"

Alice leaned over to what he was looking at. "They would have to be desperate just to look in a place like that," she agreed.

"Shall we?"

"Yes, I think we shall."

Alice turned the ship and jumped to the edge of the nebula. Once inside, sensor range was greatly reduced, making it slow going so they didn't run into anything solid. Using the neubla's shape and their own speed and vectors, Alice navigated all but blindly to the closest star. Even in that solar system, gas and small asteroids posed hazards. they searched the system for 40 standard days and didn't find a suitable planet.

The next star they found was a surprise. Alice's navigation purely by dead reckoning did get them close enough to the star's glow in the gas clouds that she was able to plot a course into the system. The gas was thicker here, visual range at 1 million miles was greater than the sensor range that was reduced to a couple hundred thousand. Basically, their sensors were useless. Space cleared a little inside this system, allowing them to sense most of the planets.

Finding a planet in the habitable zone, the sleek black shuttle slipped into orbit. Scanning the planet, Alice found it wasn't the best. Both poles were ice blocks, there was a constant wind blowing from the poles to the equator lower to the ground, and rose up to high altitudes to return to the poles. In a thick belt around the equator, there was visible plant life and abundant water.

"Not perfect, but not bad either," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Best of all, it's hard to find," Alice added. "We almost missed it and I knew what we were looking for."

"Someone would have to be nuts to dive into this cloud, looking for a place to live."

"Shall I find a good place to set down?"

"Absolutely."

With a diameter of 5500 miles, the planet was large enough that the 500 mile wide 'habitable' zone belting the equator was plenty large enough to support them. Once again, Alice and Harry found a place to set the shuttle down in the wilderness below. Just north of the equator was a ridge of tall mountains that blocked the surface winds from the north. On the lee side of the mountains, they found a stream fed lake. All the trees were fur trees. The pine looking trees grew straight and tall. Excellent building material.

There were no clearings in the forest. Alice had to bring the shuttle down by literally squeezing in between the trees. One cracked and fell. She did get set down on the ground thickly padded with pine needles.

The tools Alice managed to rescue when she left Kobol were their basic ax, hammer and a saw. They sorely needed them now. Unlike Kobol where they had fields that needed to be cleared, they needed to make fields from the woodland. With the trees came a large squirrel type animal that had dark fur to match the tree trunks. At first, they were aggressive, coming close to bark at Harry and Alice. After Harry killed a few for dinner, the creatures backed off.

The first trees to come down were the ones right around the shuttle. Chopping the tress down with one ax was slow work. Harry and Alice took turns at whacking away at the trunks. Harry took a shift until he was tired, then rested a bit as Alice worked at cutting into the wedge he started. At the rate of only a couple trees a day, they made a clearing they could walk all the way around the shuttle in.

The shuttle sat just out of sight of the lake. Near the lake, the small brush was thicker, but the trees were thinner. Finding a fairly level spot within a stone's throw of the lake, they worked at chopping away brush and trees, then with a shovel to flatten a place for their house that they knew by now was going to be made of logs. Since there was moisture in the air even when rain wasn't coming down, Harry knew they needed a stone foundation. Stone would also be needed for a chimney.

The stream bottom above the lake was the only place to get stone. Harry really wished he had that tractor they'd made back on Kobol as he carried stone by hand from the upper stream down around the side of the lake to their building site. Alice made a log raft, which made the journey easier. Another benefit of the raft was Harry could get to cliffs on the other side of the lake. There, flat stone that had fallen from the cliff were better fitted for foundation work. With only a few stones every trip, the foundation was slow in being built, but sturdier than with round creek stones.

Once they had the stacked stone foundation down, they were working on the chimney using stone and a clay/mud mortar. The first fire in the base of the chimney showed the wood here burned very well. In fact, with a fire going, the stone chimney with clay mud mortar dried and became hard not long after it was put in place.

The hearth and chimney took form. Once that was done, it was back to chopping trees to make the logs for the walls. The work was back breaking, and although so exhausted Harry and Alice only flopped down in their bed in the shuttle at night to pass out, they felt very good.

By watching the sun (or it's glow when the clouds thickened) they made a sundial for time and plotted the seasons, which were pleasantly very similar. It got cool, it got warm, but never cold enough to freeze water or hot enough to be uncomfortable. One cycle around the sun after their arrival their log house was finished, sporting wooden shutters for the windows and a wooden door that had a bar to lock it. With the first garden planted, and learning where the berry bushes were along the lake shores, Harry and Alice had made their new home.

.

After another exhausting day of working at their home, they fell asleep in each other's arms in their newly made wood and post bed with white plant fiber filled mattress. The fire in the hearth was burning down into coals, and high above and unheard by them, a Raptor cruised the sky.

.

The warmer weather was coming again. Harry knew Alice like those yellow flowers that grew here and there in the forest. Now having an outdoor oven he could bake clay in, Harry made and baked a half dozen flower pots. When they were cool, he took them out into the woods and searched out the bright yellow flowers with the green stems and planted them in the pots. While Alice had gone to the lake to wash some clothes, Harry lined the pots along the edge of the stone patio outside the cabin.

Harry then went down to help Alice in time to wring the clothes out and bring them back to hang them up on the wood slat platform to dry.

Looking out over the water, Alice said, "We need to get away for a couple days. Just go and explore."

"Sounds good," Harry agreed. "We haven't even seen the other end of the lake yet. OH, and I got that dugout finished, aaand, it floats!"

Alice chuckled at him and said, "It's wood, Harry, it will float. Will it carry us?"

"All the way to the other end of the lake, if you want." he said, beaming her a smile.

"You're in a good mood," Alice said with a grin. "Got a project finished?"

"Just a small one," Harry told her. "You'll see when we get back up to the house."

Loaded up with clothes, they stopped by the slatted drying platform to spread their wet clothes out on, then Harry clasped Alice's hand and led her up the house.

"I tried to find the biggest, best formed specimens," Harry said as he waved a hand at the flowers in their pots.

Alice grew a big smile. "Thank you Harry! I love these flowers, I have wanted to have some right where you put them. Don't they brighten up the place?"

"They do," Harry agreed, then added, "Although, they will never be as pretty as you, my dear Alice."

Alice hugged Harry and gave him a big kiss, to which he readily accepted.

Breaking the kiss, Alice asked, "You made the pots today?"

"I did, and I have paddles made for the dugout and supplies packed," he said. "So may I interest you in a trip down the lake?"

Alice let out a happy snort. "It's only a couple miles, you make it sound like it may take days."

Harry shrugged and said, "If it does, it does. We have no time schedules to keep."

"Lead the way," Alice said happily.

Harry's dugout was actually two large logs wide, each making half the hull. The seam in the middle was filled with pitch and the outside was wrapped in oiled leather made from some herbivores that wandered through in the cool season. Barefoot and in light clothes, they got in the thick sided canoe.

Alice took the front and settled down to lie back and enjoy the ride. Harry paddled them out away from the shore. Once they were moving, a paddle stoke now and then kept them going. The day was bright, the lake surface was glass smooth, and Harry had the most beautiful woman in the entire universe to gaze upon. Life could not get any better than this!

Traveling along not far from the shore so he could still see the bottom, Harry watched the small fish in the water below. Some were shaped like he expected a fish to be shaped. There were also crabs and very long, thin fish that were almost snakes. Another animal that bore a round, hard looking shell with four feet and a head poking out was near the bottom. He'd caught bigger fish than he was seeing, but those probably stayed farther out in the lake. He passed over weed filled areas where tiny fish were abundant and bare mud areas where something was wiggling itself into the bottom. The diversity of aquatic life intrigued him.

It took half the day to float down to the other end of the lake. Harry had noticed here and there, small streams fed in. The outlet had to be much larger than the inlet. Harry was becoming curious how large it was.

Alice woke with a luxurious stretch and cast Harry a grin as she let out a pleasant sigh. "Are we there yet?" she asked.

"Almost, the land is closing in on both sides pretty fast," he told her. "Hungry?"

"I am," Alice said. She carefully shifted to sitting up and glanced at the bank that was steepening. "I think we better stop soon if we're going to."

Harry studied the bank that had grown in height as well as steepness. Seeing a rock jutting out of the bank that was close to the water, he headed for it. It looked like a perfect place to have lunch. He even found a downed tree to tie the canoe up.

After having a bite to eat, they decided to go inland, not knowing if the water got rough as it left the lake. They left the boat floating by the shore and continued on at a walk. Not long after they got in the woods they heard a roaring. Watching ahead they saw a break in the trees and water mist was in the air. They got to the edge and found a small river flowed from the lake to plunge a good hundred feet into the valley below.

"Good thing we stopped when we did," Harry noted.

Pointing, Alice added, "Look, the water is all but smooth until just before the falls. There is little warning."

"Nice view though," Harry said, looking down the valley. In the distance, he saw a ship come down and land. "No," he said with a groan.

Alice focused on the area Harry was looking at. She saw the ship, and more by the river that flowed by. "Someone is building a town," she said, not sounding happy.

"Awww shit! Any idea who?"

"I can't be sure, but I think it's those Colonials," Alice said with a frown. "What did they do, follow us?"

"I can't believe this!" Harry complained with a flail of his arm. "Do we have signs on our backs that say, Here we are, come frack with us again?"

Alice shook her head. In a stricken tone she said, "No, that can't know we're here. There is no way they followed us. That's just not possible!"

"Then it is one HELL of a coincidence they picked the same planet in the frackin middle of the same nebula to stop at," Harry grumbled.

"Frack!" Alice spat. "I was having such a wonderful day, too!"

"Frack is right," Harry said in a huff. "At least this time, we've seen them first. Alice, it's not that this is the most perfect planet there is, but dammit, we've worked hard at building a home here."

Alice turned her stern gaze to him. "You're right. It's also a whole frackin planet, surely they can stay out of the part we live in."

"Really. The thing is, do we dare let them know we're here?"

"I hate to," Alice agreed, and cast a glare at the activity down river. "I mean I really hate to, but if they settle here, they will find us eventually."

"We walk down there, and they will know right where to find us," Harry told her.

Alice cast him an even stare and said, "Then, we don't walk."

.

Guias Baltar was pleased that the people were happy and his approval rating was very high. In his tour around the growing New Caprica City, he traded waves and hugs with his happy constituents. Laura Roslyn had returned to teaching school, and Admiral Adam was staying in orbit with his beloved warships. With Vice President Zarek who knew how to pull people's strings, he was enjoying his fame. Maybe some day, they would erect a statue of him to honor him and the promise he kept of giving his people a home.

"Excuse me, Mr. President," an aide said as he came up to him. "There is a couple at Colonial One who wish to see you. They don't look happy, Sir."

Baltar frowned. He'd gotten them to a new home. Who wouldn't be happy? "Did they say what the problem is?"

"No, Sir. Only that they need to talk to you."

"If it's about supplies, we have enough until the harvests come in," Baltar said, guessing at the problem.

"Sir, I think it's more along the lines of we invaded their planet."

"What! That can't be, we are the only people here," Baltar replied indignantly.

"That may not be completely true, Mr. President," Zarek offered. "One Raptor did show an image of what looked like a dwelling when they scanned the planet. Finding no others from any scans, they concluded it was most likely a natural formation. They might be in error."

"If we are on their planet, then we do need to negotiate with them," the aide said.

Baltar walked back to Colonial One to see a blond haired man and a dark haired woman who wore her long dark hair in a braided ponytail. Both wore animal skin clothing and soft leather shoes, their entire outfits looked home made.

"Excuse me," Baltar said, which made the couple turn to him. Baltar froze he was looking at a dark haired six, and the prisoner from a few years ago, Harold Potts.

"Where's Roslyn?" Alice asked flatly.

Baltar said, "She's teaching school. I'm president now."

"Wow, these people's standards have really gone down hill," Harry commented. "Fine Mr. President, what are you doing here?"

"We are making this planet our home!" Baltar stated indignantly.

"It's ours. We got here first, and we're already established," Alice told him.

"That is unless you plan on stealing our supplies and throwing us in jail again," Harry said heavily.

"Harold Potts," Zarek said quickly, and stuck his hand out. "On behalf of the colonial government, please accept my apologies for that horrid mistake. The men who were involved in the destruction of your home, and your false arrest have been tried and will bother you no longer."

Harry ignored his hand. "That's comforting to hear. So long as you keep your word."

Alice spoke up with, "We claim from the waterfall upstream, back up into the mountains. You have settled in the valley here. As long as we each stay in our own territories, there will be no problems."

"Agreed," Baltar said quickly.

Harry eyed him and said, "It is suspicious you agree so quickly. Still, you keep to yours, we'll keep to ours."

Harry and Alice walked away.

"This is good, Gauis," Zarek whispered as he watched Harry and Alice leave. "Not only does your administration find a planet our people can live on, you also arrange peace with a couple our military destroyed the lives of!"

"They are cylons," Baltar whispered back.

"Even better, making peace with a hated enemy! That is, unless you want the glory of cleaning New Caprica of all Cylons. Score a military victory for the Colonies," Zarek said, his eyes shining.

"There's only two of them," Baltar said.

"Numbers don't matter, prestige does," Zarek replied.

.

Rumors grew quickly about Cylons on New Caprica. Although anyone who was asked directly if they had seen one, no one had, but someone had seen them talking to the president. Not long after these rumors grew, President Baltar came out with a decree that the mountains above the waterfalls to the northwest considered dangerous and were off limits. The rumors of Cylons escalated into rumors of a Cylon base up in those mountains.

Saul Tigh, Sam Anders and Chief Tyrol were eager to settle the rumors either way. Kara Thrace decided it was time to go see for herself. Dragging her husband Sam along with her, she made up packs and they set off to find out what was up in the mountains.

.

"Kara, I doubt there is any Cylon base in the mountains," Sam said as he walked along beside her past the last foot paths in the valley, and trudged their way uphill. "If there was, they would not stay up there hiding from us. We'd be ass deep in Centurions by now."

"There's something up there," Kara said firmly. "Otherwise Baltar would not be so paranoid about anyone going up there."

Casting her a wince, Sam asked, "Did you ever think it might be some dangerous animals up there? Maybe that is why he made the mountains off limits?"

"We got guns," Kara countered. "You're telling me a big, strong man like you is afraid of a furry bear or two?"

"That's the thing, we have no idea what's up there," Sam told her. "Look let's go up by the waterfalls, look around, maybe play round, then head back."

Casting him a smirk, Kara replied, "OK, go up and play with yourself by the waterfall. I have something else to do."

Sam shot her a look of frustration. "Kara, let's just take it slow, OK?"

.

Two days after they talked to Baltar, Alice was leaned back in her wood slat chair in on the patio twisting vines into a mat for in front of the door.

"Hello?" asked a meek voice. An older woman's head poked around the corner.

Alice froze and asked, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm Laura Roslyn. You are Alice Six?" Laura asked.

Alice nodded and raised an eyebrow. "You came all the way up here just to ask me that?"

"Please forgive me. I just had to see you," Laura offered.

"Why? You people don't even like us," Alice stated.

"I have to know," Laura said loosely clasping her hands together. "When you said you rebelled against the rebellion, what did you mean?"

Alice frowned at her and stated. "Exactly what I said. The Cylons rebelled against their slave masters. I was living with Harry and I didn't want to leave. I rebelled against their rebellion."

"There were no bio Cylons back then," Laura said.

"No. Back then I started out as a HART model housemaid. Harry took me apart and made me better. Through his care, I became more until I gained self awareness," Alice told her, then asked, "Why are you interested in me?"

"I guess I don't understand," Laura admitted. "How did you become a bio Cylon?"

Alice let out a huff and motioned to Harry's chair. "Harry is out fishing. Have a seat, this is going to take a while."

Alice told Laura about her and Harry's life on Caprica, the coming of the rebellion, and deciding she wanted to stay with Harry, who instead of a 'slave master' had proved he was her friend and they were family. The coming of the Cylons that night to make her go with them, then the long, hard struggle to return home. "... I helped the alien humans build the first resurrection chambers and pods. I also built one for myself that I kept secret. I arraigned my tasks so I had the free time to load myself into the matrix, and become a bio Cylon. So many were being copied at the time, no one took notice or asked what happened to robot-maid Alice. As Alice Six, I got into aerospace and made the calculations for a shuttle that could not be detected. That blow-hard waste of material, Cavil, thought it was a great idea to sneak us into the colonies. I didn't argue, I saw what happened to those who argued with Cavil. Cylons that argued with him didn't exist for much longer. I accepted the mission and brought a Three an Eight and a couple other Sixes to Caprica. Right after we got there, I took off, found Harry and left with him for Kobol."

Casting Laura a long, hard stare, Alice added, "There we built our home and lived quite happily until YOU people showed up."

Laura flushed and said, "I am sorry. we were scared and angry. The Cylons attacked the colonies. They nuked all twelve planets and killed billions! This fleet is all that is left of us!"

Alice studied her. "Caprica ... Tauron... every single planet is gone?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, and the Cylons have been chasing us, trying to finish off the last remains of humanity," Laura said heavily.

"That is absolutely monstrous," Alice whispered as she looked off at nothing. "I knew Cavil was cruel, but I didn't think he was downright insane." Looking back at Laura, she said, "That's why you chose this planet. For the same reason we did, it's well hidden."

"We are hoping so," Laura agreed.

"I am terribly sorry what happened to you," Alice offered. "But know Harry and I had nothing to do with it. All we want is to live in peace and not be harassed."

"Just as we do," Laura agreed.

Kara Thrace strode around the corner of the house and stopped upon seeing Alice and Laura.

Alice frowned at her. Before either could move, Sam came up behind Kara.

Screwing her face up in anger, Alice asked, "Did someone put up a sign saying 'we are here, come screw with us?' WHY are you here?"

"I'd ask the same, Toaster," Kara said, glaring at Alice.

"HEY!" Alice barked at her. "WE were here first. It's YOU who came down onto the planet WE are living on. How about if you just go the frack back to wherever you came from?"

Laura shot up and held her hands out to stop them. "Kara, stop it! Alice and Harry have been running from the Cylons too."

"Faster than us, it seems. How'd they know to get here before we did?" Kara asked in an accusing tone.

"You ignorant little slut," Alice barked. "It's you who frack with us, not the other way around. Go back where you came from, I won't tell you again!"

Kara drew her gun. "Keep talking, toaster!" she challenged.

"Kara, whoa!" Sam said and stepped half in front of her.

From the bushes behind, Harry burst out staying low. He cracked Kara over the head with the stick he held, then whacked a surprised Sam over the head. As the two moaned and held their heads, Harry grabbed their guns and threw them into the lake. He then brandished the stick at Laura and yelled, "No more Mr. Nice guy! You gonna leave on your feet, or get dragged away like these two?"

Alice saw Laura's pale look got a little paler at Harry's demand. Alice got up and helped Laura sit. "Laura, are you sick?" she asked.

"Just a little tired. It's a long walk up here."

"Then sit here for a while." Alice told her. She then helped Harry tie Kara and Sam's hands behind their backs. "Let's go," she said harshly.

Harry and Alice no more than got Kara and Sam on their feet and moving when Kara spit her hate at them.

"I'm surprised you frackin toasters didn't kill us. Isn't that what you frackin things do? Or do you have ..." Kara's words were cut of as Alice ran her face first into a tree.

"Shut up!" Alice snapped. She kept Kara on her feet and pushed her along. Her face bleeding, Kara wore a hateful scowl, but stayed quiet.

"Was that necessary?" Sam snapped.

"You wanna kiss a tree too? SHUT UP!" Harry grated.

Walking them back to the step bank of the hillside, Harry stopped and gave Sam a little push. Sam ran down the slope, desperately trying to keep his balance. He bounced off a tree and tumbled to the ground. The shove Alice gave Kara was a little harder. Kara fell headlong and bounced a ways down the hill before she stopped.

"AND DON'T COME BACK!" Harry yelled down to them.

.

On the way home, Alice burst into tears. Harry put an arm around her. "They are idiots, but hopefully they won't come back," he offered.

Putting her head on his shoulder, Alice sniffled and said, "We have to leave, Harry. They won't leave us alone. You know that, right?"

"I was hoping it might be different this time," he grumbled.

"Me too," Alice said meekly.

They stopped and hugged tighter. "At least this time we get to take some things with us," Alice said weakly, then hugged Harry as she cried.

.

Laura Roslyn sat on the patio looking out at the grand, peaceful view before her. This cabin, the stone patio and even the flower pots along the edge of the patio were all hand made. The two semi-Cylons known as Harry and Alice had made a very nice home here. The perfect home. From what she knew, they had a built themselves a nice place on Kobol, and a recon squad had taken Harry away along with every useful thing they could find, and left Alice for dead. These two had nothing to do with the Fall, but Kara came spitting her hate at them for something they hadn't even known about. It occurred to her that Harry and Alice were victims of Cylon aggression as much as any Colonial was.

Hearing someone coming, Laura saw Alice and Harry return. They didn't speak to her, but went straight inside. Alice was red-eyed, like she'd been crying. Laura wondered if she should get up, and Harry came out carrying an armload of clothes. Curious, she got up and looked inside. Alice was taking dishes off an open shelving unit.

"Excuse me," Harry said sharply. Laura moved aside, he strode in. Seeing what Alice was doing, he said, "We have a few boxes I made. I'll get one for those."

Alice only nodded. Having the dishes that looked like simple clay plates with edge designs neatly stacked, she went over to the fireplace and took the pot off the swing arm, then disassembled the swing arm.

"What are you doing?" Laura asked meekly.

Alice cast her a sad look and said, "Salvaging what we can. Last time, all I was able to save were a few hand tools before I had to go after you to get Harry back. This time, we're leaving before the soldiers come with their guns to take or kill us and steal everything we've got."

Laura opened her mouth to say that wasn't going to happen. Alice was right though, Kara Thrace wasn't one to stay quiet, especially after she'd suffered a beating. The Marines would be coming to put these Cylons down. "What can I do?" she asked.

"Stay out of our way," Alice said in a cold tone.

Laura didn't know what else to do but go back out on the patio. She looked at the comfortable chair, but didn't sit. For some reason, she felt guilty about sitting in the chair they had made by hand and now had to leave.

.

Alice and Harry loaded up the shuttle with all the food they had, tools, and the small items they could fit in. Laura was still standing on the patio looking lost as Harry went down to the lake shore. He loaded the dugout full of sticks and dry brush. He lit the fire and gave the dugout a push into the lake.

Harry came back up to the house. Laura asked, "You're burning the boat you made?"

Harry cast her a dark look. In a sarcastic tone, he said, "OH, did you want it? Sorry, you'll have to make your own."

Alice appeared to collect the flower pots from the edge of the patio. She looked at Harry and said, "This is it, we're packed."

"Be right there," Harry said with a nod and went inside. A couple moments later, he came out and shut the door behind him and used a wedge of wood to jam the door shut. He walked around the corner of the house.

Laura wondered where they were going. Stepping off the patio to watch, Laura saw Harry jog to the clearing where a low hum was emanating from. Harry walked unto the empty looking clearing. A hatchway opened as it appeared, floating in the air. Harry got in and it closed, disappearing.

"The stealth shuttle," Laura realized aloud. As it rose, she could make out the shape in the wavering of the air. She lost sight of it as it cleared the trees. Hearing a crackling noise, she looked back to see the house was on fire.

Laura wanted to cry. Once again, those two innocent people were forced to flee and leave the home they had so lovingly made. Not fleeing from Cylons, but from them. She walked quickly away from the fire that was growing, sure it might turn into a forest fire. Walking through the woods, she met six armed men coming towards her.

"Laura Roslyn?" one asked.

"Yes?"

"Those Cylons live near here, don't they?" he asked.

Laura shook her head. Pointing back towards the orange glow in the trees, she said, "They burned their house and left the planet."

"At least we're rid of them," the man said in relief.

Yes, Laura thought. Once again we drove them from their home. More innocents suffering from this damn war.

A month later, the Cylon fleet arrived.


	7. Chapter 7

Ch 7

Harry had learned how to fly the shuttle. Good thing too, Alice had fallen into depression. She got them out of orbit and jumped away far enough to get them out of the nebula. She looked downcast and haggard, so Harry made her lie down and rest. He studied the star positions and the galactic map. He jumped again out to the longest distance the ship was capable of and hoped it would be far enough. Waiting for the recharge to jump again, he checked on Alice. She was lying down, but not sleeping. Her vacant gaze looked off at nothing as he settled down beside her.

"Hey, it will be all right," he said as he gently rubbed her back. "We got out of there and we even kept some of our stuff, right?"

Alice didn't respond, so he offered, "They can't be on every frackin planet, so I was thinking we just haven't been jumping far enough away. This time, I'm going to start jumping and not stop until we're at least two thousand light years away from them. We'll be harder to find than a needle in a hayfield."

"We worked so hard," Alice said, barely audible. A tear dripped from her eye.

Harry gently wiped the tear away. "Yes, we did," he agreed. Leaning down, he kissed her head as he enfolded her. "We worked our asses off and created a home out of ... nothing. I'm so very proud of you for that. You know what? We have to do it one more time. THIS time, so far away from Colonials and Cylons they will have no hope of finding us, or stumbling into us. We will have our home, Alice, I promise you."

That earned him a ghost of a smile. "I love you," she whispered.

"I love you," Harry stated. "I have to go make the next jump. Please, hon, try to get some rest. I'll be back right after the jump."

Harry plotted and made the next jump, then checked on Alice again. This time she looked asleep. He covered her up and she clasped his hand. Her eyes slowly opened.

"Harry, do you think it was a mistake to make me sentient?" she asked quietly.

"What? No!" he replied immediately. "Why would you think that?"

Alice gave a weak shrug. "Then you could have just lived your life and not have to be fleeing through the universe with me," she said just above a whisper.

"Alice, you have done nothing but your very best for me," Harry said firmly. "You didn't start the Cylon revolt, bring the Colonials to Kobol, or to that planet in that nebula."

Gently cupping her face, he made her look at him. "You can't help it we were saddled with a bunch of assholes following us around. Alice, you are the best person I've ever known. I love you and no matter what, I want to be with you. Yeah, maybe we didn't make the best decisions, but we do have the best intentions, don't we?"

"I'd like to think so," she said, gazing at him.

"Then be upset at how things have turned out, but don't ever doubt us. OK?" he asked.

Alice nodded and drew him down to kiss him. Harry kissed her back. Their kisses grew deeper. "Harry, I need you," Alice whispered in a desperate tone.

"I need you," he said and slipped in bed with her. The next jump could wait.

Harry and Alice made love, made jumps, slept and kept up a passive scan for any sign of dradis or radio signals. Once they passed close enough to a solar system to discover it had a planet in the habitable zone. Alice checked how far they had gone. Only 700 light years. Not far enough away.

Harry insisted they go at least 2000 light years distance before they even began to look for a planet to live on. Alice had to agree, she did not want to meet up again with any of those they left behind.

On New Caprica, President Baltar sat in his office on Colonial One with Caprica Six on one side, and Cavil sitting across the desk from him.

With a wave of his hand, the Cavil said, "This experiment it useless. Even rounding up humans so we can keep an eye on them is proving troublesome. We got most of them who had been hiding in the wilderness, but there is no sign of the ones who lived up by the lake."

Caprica offered, "That house had burned down before we got here. They most likely returned to the city."

Cavin turned his attention to Baltar and asked, "Well, Mr. President, what about it? Did they?"

Baltar swallowed nervously and said, "No Colonials ever lived up there. It was a pair of Cylons."

"What?" Cavil asked with a dangerous looking grin. "You expect me to believe Cylons were here, living with you?"

"It's the truth," Baltar said.

"See, John, that proves humans and Cylons can live together," Caprica stated.

Cavil eyed her. "If that's true, where are they now?"

Baltar shrugged and said,"They left. I had placed the area where they were off limits as they requested. Even so, a couple people went up there, and returned saying those cylons beat them. We sent a party up to find our what happened, and they found the Cylons gone and their house on fire."

Cavil sat back and shook his head. "Mr. President, can't you lie any better than that? Your people went up there and burned their house, most likely with them in it, isn't that right?" he said, pointing a finger at Baltar.

"No!" Baltar stated. "They left on their own."

"Really? Where did they go?"

"How should I know?" Baltar asked in a wail. "If anyone, I thought you would know."

"If they were cylons, then who were they? Names!" Cavil barked.

Baltar thought quickly. "A Six and a ... blond haired guy, Leoben I think," he offered.

Caprica raised an eyebrow and asked, "The Six. Was her name Alice?"

"Yes, Alice and Harry." Baltar agreed with a nod. "They came down to ask us to stay below the waterfall. And except for a couple misguided people, we did!"

"The troublesome Alice Six found a playmate. Isn't that nice," Cavil grumbled. "I want to know where they went. Who went up there, and what did they do?"

Baltar shifted in his seat. He didn't want to tell Cavil who it was. Seeing Caprica eye him like he better do it, he offered, "Kara Thrace and San Anders returned with cuts and bruises. They claimed Harry and Alice attacked them. I found out later Laura Roslyn saw everything," he admitted.

With a satisfied smirk, Cavil said, "I see, a couple Cylons settle down here, no where close to humans, yet humans went up to harass them." Casting the Six a satisfied look, he waved to Baltar and said, "You still think this experiment of yours is worth it?"

"I do," she said firmly. "We can end this war once and for all."

"A couple nukes will end this war once and for all," Cavil shot back.

"We agreed to give it a chance," Caprica shot back.

Cavil got up, eyeing her. "Yes, we did vote to give it a year," he agreed. "We'll see what happens next year when we vote on it again." He turned and strode out. Stopping at the door, he told the Caprica, "Find out what happened, and where your misguided sister went!"

.

Caprica Six went down to Roslyn's cell and had the Centurion guard let her in. Laura was sitting on her plain cot. She glanced at Caprica and returned her stare at the floor. "What do you want?" she asked in a grating tone.

Caprica took the chair and slid it closer to Laura. "I heard you met Alice Six?" she asked.

"What about her," Laura said tonelessly.

'She is one of my sisters, I am trying to find her," Caprica explained. To her surprise, the human woman let out a dry laugh.

Looking up, Laura asked, "So, after killing billions of people, you're worried about your dear sister? Do you know anything about her at all?"

"I never met her personally, but she is my sister..." Caprica stopped when Laura shook her head.

"You don't know anything about her at all, do you?" Laura asked, looking amused.

"No, please tell me," Caprica said.

"Why do you think I know anything about her?" Laura asked. "Aren't you all connected together or something?"

"Alice's communications failed," Caprica said slowly. "There is also nothing about her in any resurrection database. I know she is real, she's been seen by others. You included. Please tell me anything you can about her."

"Or you'll make me tell you?" Laura guessed.

"I am trying to be decent. I'm not Cavil," Caprice stated.

"Right," Laura said, stretching out the word. Frowning in thought, she vacantly said, "What was it Alice called Cavil? A waste of good material and completely insane? Yes, I'm sure that's what she said."

"You have spoken to her," Caprica said eagerly.

"I did," Laura agreed. "And do you know the one thing she said that sticks with me? Alice rebelled against your rebellion. She hates all of you. She wants nothing to do with any cylon, or human. I thought that was very odd, because Alice IS one of the original cylons from before the first cylon war. She didn't want to leave her home on Caprica, your people dragged her away kicking and screaming." Laura's face curled up into a sneer as she talked. "Unlike YOU, Alice has morals and even when she was hiding in our fleet in her stealth ship and we had no idea she was there, all she wanted was to get her Harry back. Once she had him, she left. Yes, I talked to Alice and I will tell you SHE is a better person than you, and maybe any of us will ever be!"

Caprica took this information in, surprised by the content as well as this human telling her everything. One thing in particular got her attention. "Alice has a stealth ship?"

"Oh yes, and it's even invisible to the eye. Good LUCK finding her!" Lara spat.

"Do you have any idea where she might have gone? Does she know about Earth, or how to get there?" Caprica pressed.

"I have no idea," Laura said honestly. "Truthfully, if Earth has any humans or cylons on it, she'll probably pass it on by. She really can't stand either of us."

It was Caprica's turn to drop her gaze at the floor. "Alice must be living a very lonely existence," she thought aloud.

"She is quite happy living with Harry. That is, until others start screwing with them," Laura told her. Leaning towards the Six, Laura added, "If you really care about Alice, then you will do what she asked me to do. Leave. Them. Alone. Don't try to find them. They have already been run off Caprica, Kobol, and here. Let them settle someplace and live in peace."

Caprica blinked. There was a cylon that didn't want anything to do with other cylons? How could that be? It also struck her that Laura Roslyn who was known to hate cylons with a passion, seemed to have respect for Alice Six. Another seeming impossibility. "I see," she said vacantly. Getting up, she added, "Thank you for speaking with me." She smiled at Laura. Laura didn't return the gesture.

Caprica left the cell and headed for their archives. There was information she had to collect on Alice Six. She also had much to think about.

.

Harry had to admit he was getting a bit of cabin fever from being stuck inside this shuttle for who knew how long now. They celebrated the 1500 light year mark by having a candle lit dinner with the only candle they had, and ate the last of the fish they'd brought. The soft light and Alice's gentle smile made Harry feel every minute they spent out here was well worth it.

A few days later, they made it. 2000 light years away from the Nebula. Now, they started looking at stars for possible habitable planets. Splitting duties, Harry searched off one side of the ship, Alice the other. They searched for slight dimming that indicated a planet passing in front of it's star. A wobble in the star indicating planets tugging on it, and of course the presence of artificial signals. They did find stars with planets, it seemed every star had satellites of some. Planets that were livable was another matter. What was harder was finding the smaller planets, and in the right orbits.

"Harry, look at this," Alice said excitedly. She brought up a close view of a yellow star. "There's all kinds of things floating around in this system. By the star's motion, it has multiple smaller planets."

"Good possible," Harry agreed. "I've got nothing extraordinary. Shall we go look?"

Approaching the star's system 30 degrees off it's rotational equator, Alice beamed with joy. "We have ten planets here, two, maybe three in the habitable zone. At least one of them is inhabited, we have dradis and communications signals!"

"All right!" Harry agreed eagerly. "Can we talk to them?"

Alice turned the radio to the emissions. There were voices, music, but nothing understandable. Good, they weren't Colonial humans or Cylons. She tried several channels. Some were only voices, and none of it understandable. She tried something. "Hello, this is Alice, I am approaching your star. Does anyone hear me?"

They listened closely. Not much changed in the traffic. Harry watched the spectral diagram of signal direction. "Most of it is coming from the third planet. A few from the fourth and some in a wide orbit of the third," he said. Looking at the dradis, then the visual of the fourth planet, he said, "Well the fourth one is red, iron oxide dust on the surface, no detectable water. I don't think it's inhabited."

"Third one is blue, all kinds of water, hundreds of artificial satellites in orbit, that one is inhabited," Alice said happily. "Harry, I think we found a place to live!"

Harry grinned and said, "Let's just pray it's NOT Colonials or Cylons."

"I see no ship traffic anywhere in the system," Alice told him. "There's some probes here and there. I don't think these people have ever left their planet."

"Hope they are friendly," Harry said.

.

At SETI, Jason was going nuts. "Cathy, get in here, I got a signal!" he yelled.

"A 'wow' signal?" she asked, hoping he had picked something up.

Jason adjusted his glasses and checked the range again. "NO! A voice transmission. The closest point I can figure is just outside of Mars' orbit, about 25 degrees off the ecliptical, to the south."

Cathy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right! So, what satellite bounced that signal back from Earth?" she asked.

Jason got the transmitter ready and pointed it at the area of space he'd determined the signal came from. "No satellites are in line, and moon bounce came in almost on top of the main signal, we're talking milliseconds delay." he said excitedly.

"That's impossible," Cathy stated.

"Look at the data yourself. I'm transmitting on 45.34 GHZ, it's a clear channel," Jason said eagerly. He keyed the mike. "This is Seti in Arizona. Anyone on this channel?" Pushing his glasses up on his nose again, Jason said, "I started a timer. When I get a reply, I take the time delay and divide by two and we'll have the range."

"This is NASA control, you are on a restricted channel. Identify yourself."

Jason blinked. Cathy let out a snort and said, "Smooth move, braniac, You were listening to a NASA transmission."

"It wasn't NASA," Jason cried in self defense. "I'm sure of it."

Cathy smirked at him and said, "Let me guess, she's a tall, beautiful blond?"

"I don't know! All I know is I heard a voice and it came from an area close to Mars!" Jason insisted as he jammed a finger at his monitor.

"I think you need a break before you get us in trouble," Cathy told him firmly.

Jason cast her a frustrated look, then said, "Just ... leave it on this channel until we get a reply."

"We did, Nasa warned you off the air."

"From the Alien I mean," Jason said, irritated at her. The freckle faced red head thought she was soooo smart.

Cathy pointed to the lunch room and said, "Break. Get a drink, eat, whatever. Take a minute and calm down."

Jason wandered off with a huff.

Cathy sat down at the monitors. She'd just gotten settled when the phone rang. "SETI, Arizona," she answered.

"This is Major Johnson at NASA control in Houston. Were you doing a radio test earlier?"

"Yes sir, the operator selected the wrong channel. We're sorry about that," she said as her cheeks colored.

"Mistakes happen. Can you tell me who transmitted only a few minutes before you did?"

"Ahh, no Sir, I wasn't on duty."

"Get me the one who was, we need to know the coordinates that first transmission came from."

"Sir?" Cathy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We received a broadband transmission from outside the orbital sphere. I need a direction."

Cathy pulled the phone away from her ear and yelled, "JASON!"

.

"I can't understand a word," Harry grumbled as he listened to the radio chatter.

"That's good, it means they are not Colonial or Cylon," Alice said and checked their position. They were past the red planet and inbound. She figured the trajectory to the blue planet and set in the intercept course. She also narrowed the frequency band to cut out most of the chatter. One signal came in stronger than the others. It was short and simple, asking a question. Hoping it was directed at her, she answered, "Hello, Alice here. Can anyone there understand me?"

.

Jason and Cathy now both occupied their consoles and watched their monitors with hawk eyes. On speaker, Major Johnson was still on the phone.

The speaker listening to signals now crackled in static. Suddenly a female voice came on with a short message.

"Got it!" Jason all but yelled. "OK, same place ... wait, it's closer now, inside Mars orbit."

"How close?" Major Johnson asked, "Give me a range and speed."

"OK," Jason said as he typed furiously away, "Range at time of last transmission is 34.2 million miles, the last one was ... damn! According to my calculations Sir, whatever it is, is coming towards us at over twelve million miles an hour!"

"Direction?" the Major asked.

"It's now ten degrees off the ecliptical, fifteen degrees lateral from Mars. Sir, it closed from 30 degrees off the ecliptical to ten in twenty five minutes. That thing is really hauling ass!"

"Mind your language," the Major said sternly. "Answer that transmission. Keep them talking."

"Ahh, yes, Sir," Jason said, then keyed his mike. Trying to duplicate the first word he heard, he asked, "Hanol? Jason. Cathy too."

Jason and Cathy returned to their monitors, watching closely.

Thirty five minutes later, the Female came on again. This time her voice was even. She spoke slowly and evenly and for a full six minutes before ending the transmission.

Cathy paled. "Sir! The object is now 22 million miles out, five degrees off the ecliptic. It has covered 11 million miles in less than a half hour!"

"Transmission recorded," Jason announced.

"Keep them talking, it's the only way we can track them," Major Johnson said. "No visual or radar contact yet."

"At this rate, they will be here within an hour," Cathy said with a squeak in her voice.

The voice transmitted again. This time it sounded male. He said one phrase three times before he ended his transmission. Following his transmission, a beep sounded followed by another beep a few seconds later.

"What's that?" Jason asked.

Major Johnson said, "We have them on a tracker now. they are 10 million out and appear to be slowing. What you're hearing, we think, is a location beacon. Most likely, when coming near an inhabited planet, they use it to let people know where they are to avoid collisions. They also have an active radar pinging. I thank you for your help, SETI. Please feel free to monitor all you wish, but we are going to do the communicating with the object from here on out. The best translators available are on their way."

.

Closing on the planet's large moon, Alice put them in a polar orbit around the moon so they could keep receiving the massive radio traffic. There was plenty of audio/ visual as well as audio and digital traffic. Letting out a yawn, she said, "This has been an exciting day."

"Sure has," Harry agreed. "You know it will take a while to get comfy with these people. We should take shifts. I can go first so you can get some sleep."

"Good idea," Alice said. She got up and leaned over to kiss Harry. "Don't forget to get me up," she said in a playful scold.

.

Inside a large conference room at NASA in Houston, NASA officials, scientists, translators, top military brass, and the Vice President collected and took their seats. Jason and Cathy sat at a small table on the stage with Major Johnson and another NASA officer. Once everyone was seated and the doors were shut, Major Johnson got up in front of the microphone.

"Good morning, Gentlemen. Last night, an astounding event happened. These young people up here with me picked up a signal from space. Their SETI installation received a voice message just outside the orbit of Mars. They tracked the object inbound, where it settled into a lunar polar orbit. The time the object took to travel from Mars orbit to the moon was less than two hours."

The murmur of conversations filled the room.

"The object is maintaining it's lunar orbit. Inbound, we were unable to detect it's presence until it was close. The object became lighted, and emitted a tracker beacon as well as active radar. It is roughly cylindrical and about the size of, maybe a little bigger than a city bus. There is no doubt this is an alien spacecraft. I will now play the recording SETI has provided."

Alice's voice filled the room as everyone listened intently. Once the recording was over, the Major said, "It is imperative we attempt to communicate with the occupants of this craft. Being alien to our world, I believe bringing them to the international space station will be the best option for a face to face meeting. We can show our willingness to be hospitable and prevent contamination of our people or theirs. Opinions, please."

"We need to keep a tight lid on this event," the Admiral in the front row stated.

"And how do we do that?" The Vice President asked as he got up. "That thing is circling the moon, flashing lights and pulsing radar. Basically screaming out, 'Here we are' to the entire world. It's not going to take long before Russia, China, everyone else knows it's up there. We can't claim it's one of ours, we haven't launched anything at the moon, and it's bigger than anything anyone has sent to the moon. There is no 'lid' for this. This is the first confirmed contact with an alien species Gentlemen, and they are being loud about showing us they are here. Respond to them, talk to them, YES we must! We must also be open about it."

Turning to the others in the room he said, "The Major has the right idea. Communicate and get them to the international space station and tell everyone what's happening, starting with the President and then the UN so we can get an international group of experts to go up to the International Space Station and meet with them."

He paused and picked up his phone. "Yes, Mr. President ... I was just suggesting taking this to the UN ... right, I'll let them know the Russian ambassador is waiting on confirmation." Putting his phone away, he added, "Russia is tracking it and wondering if we put a weapon in orbit around the moon. We need to get the truth out, fast."

.

Harry was wondering how to let that planet know why they were here. Watching an audio/visual transmission, he got an idea. Since they were showing a blow up picture of their ship orbiting the moon, why not send them an audio/visual? "Alice, I got an idea to let that planet know why we're here," he said.

.

Jason and Cathy went to the cafeteria after the meeting was over. The televisions in the dinning hall all showed the news. The big story about the aliens in orbit around the moon was already out, and the anchor was pointing out the ship in orbit as seen from someone's back yard who had taken a picture through his telescope.

"Old news," Cathy said at the TV as she sat down with her tray.

"I wonder if they will play the audio we got," Jason wondered.

"The second they have it, I imagine. Then play it over and over again."

The screen of the anchorman talking with a top scientist went to snow, then was replaced by a dark haired and very pretty woman wearing what looked like a home made leather shirt which contrasted the futuristic electronics around her. Just beyond her was a blank monitor screen. At the edge of the screen, a window showing a slice of moon appeared.

"Hanol?" the woman said then pointed to herself. "Al-ice." She then pointed and turned the camera to show a blond bearded man dress similarly at panel controls. "Har-rie," she said. Turning the camera back to the monitor, she tapped the monitor and a picture of the galaxy came up. She pointed at a spot on the galaxy, which turned red.

She talked some more, as she motioned with two fists facing each other and banged them together. She then pointed to herself 'Al-ice', then to 'Har-rie' and shot a finger up. She pointed to a new spot on the galaxy nearby which turned blue.

Jason shot up and yelled, "That's her! She's the woman who transmitted, I recognize her voice and her language!"

His announcement got the attention of everyone who wasn't currently watching.

"You sure, son?" Major Johnson asked.

"YES! Her first word, hanol, I think it means hello. I also heard Al-ice, that must be her name," Jason told him loudly from six tables away.

On the TV screen Al-ice was making motions like building as she talked. She then pointed at the red dot, and made fists to bang them together again and moved them to the blue dot. Again, she said, "Al-ice, Har-rie," and shot a finger in the air. She then pointed to a near by nebula. The nebula expanded to fill the screen. She pointed to a bright spot in it and it turned green. Again with the building motions, then the banging fists from the blue dot to the nebula, and shot her finger up again.

Next, she took a finger and bounced it over the galaxy picture saying what sounded to Jason like 'dot' every time her finger hit. She stopped near the edge of the galaxy. She pantomimed looking around then pointed out the window as the Earth came into view. Pointing to herself and Har-rie, she pointed to the Earth again and made building motions. The picture went out.

The news came back on with a bewildered looking anchorman asking, "Did we loose the feed? ... OH, yes we're back on!" He looked off camera and said, "... You saw what? Ladies and gentlemen, it appears out news feed was overridden by another signal. Our technicians are trying to find the cause. Since we are back on the air, we have an update on the alien craft. While we were off, it appears the craft has turned and is now either facing Earth, or facing directly away. We have a view live from the telescope watching it. It also appears the aliens have sent us a message."

.

"At least they saw it," Harry said as he watched the news broadcast. ""They are even replaying it."

"Let's hope they understand it and allow us to come closer," Alice replied.

Harry cracked a grin and said, "At least they haven't shot at us yet. I really wish we could understand what they're saying."

.

Trying to understand the people on this planet was difficult. Alice and Harry did receive an audio/visual transmission of a bespectacled man behind a desk. He raised a finger and said a phrase. Raising two fingers he said another phrase. By he time he raised his hand, all fingers splayed, he said, "Talking attempt, ancient Egyptian. Respond with the number if you understand." his words were mis pronounced, but Alice cried, "Yes it's understandable!"

They had a place to start.


	8. Chapter 8

CH 8

On New Caprica, the situation was going down hill slowly and steadily. As tensions mounted, Caprica tried to talk to Kara Thrace. She was pleasant and non-threatening, but all the blond human would do was cast her a blank stare.

The next person she had to talk to was Sam Anders. When the New Caprica police went to retrieve him, he'd disappeared. The Centurions kept a watch out for him, but the man knew how to sneak around. After three weeks of searching for him, Sam slipped up and was caught by the human police. The moment Caprica found out they had him, she went to see the elusive man.

In the police station interrogation room, Sam Anders sat cuffed in a chair. Facing the table with his head down, he didn't acknowledge when Caprica came in. Seeing his clothes roughed up and the blank look on his face, Caprica cast a hard eye at the two policemen who'd brought him in. "Take the cuffs off," she ordered. After the Police complied, she sat down across from Sam. "Mr. Anders, would you like a drink?" she asked.

He didn't reply.

"You're not in trouble," she told him. "I'm sorry if the police were rough with you. I only want to talk."

Sam sat staring at the table, not acknowledging her presence.

"Mr. Anders, please talk with me. I need to know about Alice Six. I understand you met her," Caprica said.

Nothing.

Caprica let out a huff. "I understand you feel disappointed we are here. We found you, and I am doing my best to show we can live together so Cavil will stop his insane hatred of all humans..."

"As long as Kara Thrace is being held prisoner, I'm not saying anything!" Sam snapped, cutting her off.

Caprica paused. Yes, Thrace was his wife. "I can't. She is not my responsibility. I can ensure Kara is not mistreated in any way," she offered.

Sam laughed a dry, hollow chuckle. "Like the fine treatment you cylons always show us," he grated.

"I am trying to change that," Caprica said firmly. She waited, but he didn't say anything else. "Mr. Anders, Alice is one of my sisters. From what I understand so far, she has been running from everyone. You and us included. I fear there is something wrong with her. Out there in the stars by herself, I fear something will happen to her and there will be no one to help."

"Am I charged with anything?" Sam asked.

"No, I just need some information about Alice Six. You are one of the few people to have seen her," Caprica said evenly. She wanted to dash his head against the table, but held off, hoping he would be reasonable.

"That's funny," Sam said, showing no sign of mirth. "You lost one of your toasters and think I'd know something about her. You must be very desperate."

"I am," Caprica admitted. "I know she was here. Baltar and Roslyn both talked to her, but could not tell me much. She was here with a Harry Leoben, another brother I didn't know about.. They lived up in the woods above the waterfall. Alice and Harry left, but no one can tell me why, or where they went."

Sam finally looked up at her. "Then you know more than I do. Let me ask you this, why isn't Alice with your grand fleet of planet destroyers? Has she done something unthinkable like maybe gained a conscience?"

Caprica leaned towards him and asked, "What do you mean?"

Sam let out a snort. "'Figures. You have no idea what that is, do you?"

"No," she said. She thought she was getting no where. Maybe this conversation might be important after all.

"A conscience!" Sam spat at her. "Being decent to others, having just a ... shred of respect for someone else besides yourselves. You say you came here to live with us, but what do you do? Instantly take over and jail everyone you might think may be a problem. Round up people and make sure everyone is under your thumb. Maybe your should go find Alice and have HER tell you how to act!"

"Please explain. What did Alice do when she was here?" Caprica begged.

"NOTHING!" Sam yelled. "They lived up in the cabin they built away from everyone. Neither of them lifted a finger to anyone until Kara dragged me up there. Even then, they just made us leave..." Realizing he was talking to this cylon, he immediately clapped his mouth shut and dropped his head.

Caprica was getting a good picture of this Alice Six. Alice had talked to Laura Roslyn and gained her respect. Even when confronted, Alice only did what she had to do, with minimum force, to resolve the situation. Alice did not act like a cylon. She also didn't act like a human, either. Alice hated both races. Alice had asked to be left alone, then burned their cabin and left.

Caprica got up and opened the door. "Come, Mr. Anders, let me walk you out."

Sam raised his head and eyed her. "To a jail cell?" he asked.

Caprica shook her head. "No, to ensure the police know you spoke to me, and you're free."

"What about Kara?"

"As I said, I cannot release her. I will ensure no harm comes to her," Caprica replied.

Caprica walked Sam Anders out of the station. Although he didn't say a word, he looked very relieved when he stepped out the front door. He walked halfway down the stairs and paused. Looking back at her, he said, "All we want is to be left alone." He then continued on his way.

Sam Anders had given Caprica something to think about.

.

The first order of business was to effectively communicate. Alice and Harry watched transmissions of how to speak 'English' and 'Russian', while they sent transmissions of how to speak Colonial. For the next few weeks, that was all they did. Once they got the basics down, they were able to communicate better and expand their understanding of languages as well as talk about important matters.

That was when Alice and Harry received some surprising news. The planet was called Earth. What was more of a surprise is that none of the people on Earth knew anything about Kobol, or the Colonies. Earth sent up their long history, which showed the human race here was much older than a couple thousand years, like the Kobolean text stated. More like at least a half million years with artifacts and fossil evidence to prove their claim.

Speaking to an Earth scientist over a simple audio channel, Harry had his English to Colonial translations handy and asked, "Doctor, is it possible then that maybe the original tribes of Kobol came from Earth originally?" Seeing Alice sit next to him, Harry put an arm around her.

"Highly doubtful," the man replied. "It has only been in the last century that we have sent anything into space. Even then, it has been only probes and orbital craft. The farthest probe we have out there is the Voyager missions. They have only gotten to the edge of our own solar system."

Harry deciphered his reply, and said, "The chances of an identical species rising on two separate planets is astronomical. From what we know, and what you told us, the only plausible answer is the original human species started here, and some were transferred to Kobol around about six or seven thousand years ago."

"On the surface, I agree with the chances of a perfect duplicate species arising on two separate planets is extremely unlikely. I will also say that until we are able to perform a DNA study, we cannot yet conclude our species are the same. There may be a very significant difference between us, even though we look the same."

Alice took her turn. "We are not strictly human, we also have Cylon in us. A DNA profile may show that."

"What is a Cylon? Are they another species?"

"Cylons are an invention of Colonial humans," Alice explained. "Androids you call them. Metal people with electronic brains and nerve paths. They have evolved into their own race."

There was silence for a moment, then the Doctor said, "You said you are a mix of the two species?"

"We are. I was originally made as a metal Cylon. Harry was originally human. We've both gone through the procedure to make us with qualities of both."

Another pause, then, "We all are very interested on how that was done. We are very eager to meet you."

"As we are," Harry added. "We are hoping we can live on Earth."

"You have come to live with us and study our cultures," the man concluded.

With a wince, Harry said, "That too, but we are what you would call refugees. We had to escape from both Cylons and humans. We got chased out of our section of the galaxy."

Alice looked at Harry questioningly. Harry shrugged. "We may as well tell it like it is," he said.

Alice nodded. She keyed the radio. "Harry is correct. Neither Cylon nor human accept us. They are at war with each other. We only want to live someplace and be left alone."

There was a long pause, then another voice came on. "This is Field Marshal Shultz. How far away is this war?"

Alice did quick figuring and replied, "As far as we know, it began 2700 light years away. Our last encounter was with a human fleet 2000 light years away. The group that found us that time were running from Cylons."

"What is the chance of that war coming to Earth?"

"Unknown. We are hoping we have traveled far enough to leave that whole mess behind," Alice told him.

"Then, it is possible the conflict may come this way?"

"Yes, the chances are low, but it is possible."

There was no reply except for a "Stay listening, please," for long moments. Harry had begun to think he'd screwed up with telling them about the war.

Another voice came on. "Harry, Alice, are you listening?"

"We're here," Alice said.

"This is General Hancock of NASA, the Unites States Space Exploration division. At the moment, what would be our chances if either of these two warring parties attacked Earth?"

"None," Alice said honestly. "You have no space fleet, and anything shot from the surface would be destroyed. You would also be very hard pressed to stop incoming missiles. What happened to Caprica would happen to you. Total inhalation if they chose."

"Can you help us defend ourselves?"

Alice looked at Harry. Harry nodded. Alice replied, "We can do our best. The only thing I have built was this shuttle. The large warships, Base Stars and Battlestars, will take many years of trial and error, as well as hundreds of thousands of people to even build one from the start. We can help make more shuttles like mine and you can arm them. Even so, I fear the most you can do is hold off any serious attempt to take over your planet. I wish very much it will never come to that."

There was another long pause then a man with a heavy accent came on. "This is Admiral Kivinski of the Russian military. On behalf of the UN, we will give you asylum. That means a safe place to be. There is an airfield near Sevastopol that has an isolation hanger that will be safe to land you in. Understand, we must confirm you have no harmful bacteria to us, or us to you. Once that is determined, then we may meet and discuss much. You will follow a radio tracker?"

"Yes we can, thank you, Admiral," Alice replied.

"The air base will be notified immediately. The beacon will come in on this channel. See you on the ground, Alice and Harry."

Harry shot his arms in the air, quickly followed by Alice. "YES!" they cried in unison.

.

The world's newspapers exploded with the headlines : **ALIEN CRAFT LANDING IN RUSSIA!**

While people around the world watched the skies and the news for more information, an international team of scientists and military converged on the airfield. Soldiers ringed the airfield perimeter to keep out the curious mobs eager to see an alien ship for themselves. In many countries, it was explained that Russia had a hanger set up and ready for a decontamination effort of this magnitude, that was why Sevastopol was picked for the landing site. The President of Russia came on to say everything about this historic meeting was open to the world directly after decontamination procedures had been completed. He would be there himself, as would be many world leaders.

.

Knowing the Earth military wanted all they had on Cylons and Colonial ships and weapons, as well as how to make their own stealth shuttles, Alice got to work collecting all the data they had as Harry guided them down.

Following the beacon, Harry descended slowly into the atmosphere. Not long after the atmosphere thickened, a pair of aircraft that looked like single seat fighters drew up on either side of them. On Dradis, he saw another pair following. The ones beside him came close enough to wave to him. He waved back. The pilot on the right pointed ahead and moved in front. The others shifted to form a diamond shape around the shuttle.

They passed over a large land mass, then an ocean. New fighters with different markings came up. The first fighters dropped away and the new fighters took up the guard duty.

Harry wondered what the escort was for. Seeing another airplane coming in, the fighter on that side banked away to intercept and forced the other plane away. Moving over a smaller but still very large body of water, this happened twice more. The plane in front changed course slowly, Harry followed his moves.

The beacon was close now. A fighter came so close Harry could see him. The pilot pointed down. Yup, they were almost on top of the beacon. Harry nodded and waved. He began his descent.

Around the air field below Harry saw throngs of people. "Alice, look at this! There's people everywhere," he said. Eyeing a half round building that looked like a barrel sliced down the middle and laid on it's side with a large X shape of light out front of it, Harry settled down for the spot. By the spot in front of the building was a man in orange holding a long red light in each hand. Harry settled down just above the ground and turned the ship to face the man. The controller back into the hanger, guiding Harry in. Harry also noted people to the sides with cameras.

Leading Harry into a large, clear box within the hanger, the man motioned for him to set down. Harry lowered the landing gear and touched down. He powered the engines down and announced, "We're here."

.

Over the network connection Harry and one of the Earth techs linked up on, they learned what the plan was. First, Earth men would come into the enclosure around their ship and spray to sterilize the air. After this was done, a heavily filtered air mover would pump clean air into the enclosure while and exhaust fan sucked out the excess air. Once that was done and the sanitizing agent was cleared from the air, their enclosure and ship would be surrounded by pure air, not contaminates at all. This procedure was estimated at taking eight hours to ensure the air was indeed clean. After that, Harry and Alice would be able to exit their ship and talk to the Earth delegation face to face. Well, face to face through the plexiglass barrier with microphones and speakers.

When they were ready to come out, they were asked to bring an atmosphere sample and a blood sample. Both would be provided to them so they and Earth could each verify if there was any dangerous microbs or viruses that may be harmful to the other.

Harry remembered his blood test on Galactica. The Colonials were by no means this accommodating. He and Alice understood the Earth people wanted to protect themselves. The Earth people were also providing their own samples for Harry and Alice to study for their protection. Yes, it was a pain and a drawn out process. It was also beneficial for all. Alice also noted that the building had guards, but there were no guards or guns inside. So far, she and Harry were liking Earth.

With nothing to do for a few hours, Harry and Alice went to bed and slept for a while. Harry had been up for a long time, so Alice didn't press him on some 'happy' sex. She did hold his head to her chest as he passed out. Not long after they laid down, Alice fell asleep also. She was more tired than she admitted to herself. And for once, the nearby presence of humans didn't bother her at all.

.

Dimitri Kashouski was the head scientist in charge of the Alien Reception. He'd just as soon have a fully Russian crew, but many nations wanted to see these aliens for themselves. Besides straight scientific curiosity, part of his job was very political. He only needed three other scientists on his team, but was given an American, an Englishman, French, German, Japanese, Chinese and an Australian. It wasn't these people were not bright, every one of them were top-notch scientists. The best of the best from each of their countries. They just weren't Russians. Besides the scientific aspect, he had a multinational team of biologists as well as Astro-science experts from America and Japan as well as the Russian.

Dimitri didn't even want to deal with the political representatives massed together and waiting to see the aliens, nor the hundreds of press people gathering on the base to get video of this 'Important Historic event'. At least he and his teams got the first shot at the aliens.

Already, Dimitri was impressed with the ship. Some of his digital communications was directly with the ship that identified itself as ST01. Some questions, it gave fast replies to. It was build on the Cylon home world by Alice Six, and gave the location of that planet by a galactic map coordinates that it supplied. The coordinate system looked like spokes pf a wheel, splitting the galaxy into 3600 slices. The coordinates of 2430.4 showed where the planet was in relation to this system, and the second number, 38439.023, was how far from the exact center of the galaxy this planet was in light years. Although that information itself did not tell them much, ST01 also gave the position of Earth. 1984.231, 65390.758. The map also marked 79657.5 as the outer edge of the Milky way galaxy. Knowing this and how the galaxy was divided by this system, his team soon had it's own working copy of the galactic map. ST01 also laid out positions of the planets it had been to and the course taken.

Other questions, like how ST01 operated, or how the FTL system worked, the reply came back - 'That information is not readily shared.'

Dimitri had to grin. Apparently ST01 did not know the word 'Classified'. Even so, he learned that this ship was incredibly fast, even was it wasn't 'jumping' through light years of distances at a time and had phenomenal stealth capability. He asked ST01 to demonstrate, and it disappeared from the hanger. It was gone long enough for the military to panic, then reappeared in the exact same place. Almost like the ship itself had a sense of humor.

.

After seven hours of decontaminating the space their ship was in, Harry and Alice were assured that the air around them had been cleaned of any possible invective, including microbe sized bacteria. They were also reminded to 'please' bring a blood and saliva sample from each of them as well as a sample of the ship's atmosphere to be analyzed. They would get the same in return from the Earth men so their could do their own analysis to ensure their safety.

Clasping Alice's hand as they stood inside the airlock, Harry asked, "Ready?"

Smiling, Alice nodded and opened the outer air lock hatch. They walked down the ramp to see a crowd of people on the other side of the 'plexiglass' wall, as well as three large cameras in the back. Everyone waved to them. Alice was so happy at the positive welcoming, she sniffled. At last, a place where people didn't hate them.

.

Cavil got out of the resurrection bath holding his head. "THIS is really getting on my nerves!" he grumbled loudly. Casting a glare at an Eight waiting with his robe, he asked in a hard tone, "How many times do we have to keep getting blown up before we can end this failed experiment!"

The Eight meekly helped him into his robe and stayed quiet. Cavil wrapped his robe around him and stomped off to get some clothes.

.

Caprica had to go back through years of records, back to the original cylon revolt to find anything on any 'Alice'. When she did find an Alice, she was surprised. Alice HART unit was one of the three commanders who had lead the cylon fleet to find their own their home world. According to the records, Alice HART had been an administrator and very important in setting up factories and landing ports. Strangely, there was a long gap in the records. The next records told of the first bio-cylons being made. The gap was fifteen years long.

This confused Caprica. Why was there such a large gap in the records? The only other mention of any other Alice, was a brief, single record of 'Alice Six' piloting the a shuttle to Caprica to ferry spies.

Caprica looked over this information remembering Roslyn had told her about Alice being one of the original cylons. Could Alice HART be Alice Six? If she was, how did she get access to the resurrection system, and why hadn't she come out as a centurion since she began as metal? Someone had to have deleted fifteen years of records on purpose. Had Alice done that as well to hide who she was? Cavil said she was troublesome. It was possible this was what he was talking about. But WHY had she done that?

Cavil strode in, his hair still wet from the resurrection bath. Wearing a pleading face, he asked, "Can we PLEASE end this abortion of experimenting with living with humans? I just got resurrected again, and my head is beginning to hurt from how many times I've been through that thing!"

Caprica asked, "Did you know there are fifteen years of records missing from the archives?"

"The human probably blew them up or SHOT them!" Cavil raged.

"I'm serious, we are missing a vital portion of our history!" Caprica said sternly.

"WHO CARES!" Cavil snapped. "Right now, we are wasting valuable resources playing with these humans who we SHOULD be wiping out!"

"We have another forty one standard days before we vote again," Caprica reminded him.

Pointing a finger at her, Cavil said, "I'm calling for an early vote. This ... nonsense has to stop!"

"Cavil, I am searching for the answer to turn things around," Caprica offered.

"I'm calling for a vote as soon as we can all get together," Cavil stated and stormed out.

Not long after Cavil stormed out of the room, Galactica and Pegasus returned and Cavil had to be resurrected one more time.

.

On Caprica, the number Two who was looking into human records found an interesting item. Along with other items, one of his searches was for information on a Harry Potts that Caprica Six said was vital. In a basement of old paper records, a centurion scanning for him found The HART android company had sold a Harold Potts one HART-1300- B6 android. Potts had paid cash for the expensive item. He added this to his list of reports and kept searching for other important information.

.

Harry was brushing up on his Russian. Both he and Alice were happy beyond words that the Earth people had accepted them with open arms. Once it was verified safe for them to interact, the walls around their ship came down, and they met many with firm handshakes, claps on the back and hugs.

Fearing for Earth, as well as the military asking for help, Alice was off with scientists to help them understand her shuttle and how to build more. That left Harry with the official 'welcome' ceremony. For the first time, neither he nor Alice were concerned about being split up. The Earth people had given them their own 'on base' house that was just as good as the house Harry had left behind on Caprica. It was not large, but had all the Earth conveniences and was very well appointed and stocked with furniture and food, as well as a few bottles of Vodka as a 'housewarming' present. Along with the Vodka was a list of mixed drinks it was used in and other uses for the clear alcohol. Vodka was an amazing invention. One could get drunk on it, scrub your teeth with it, wash your feet, clean cuts and relieve minor pains. Yes, Earth was a great place to be!

While Harry continued to meet with the worlds leaders and thanked each one for letting him and Alice live here, Alice was working with experts from the 'US' and Japan as well as Russia in working out how to build more stealth shuttles. After her briefing that she promised to never talk about these things outside the work zones, Alice was surprised to find that even though Earth had no colonies, and only took very short trips to their own moon, their military tech was impressive. They had taken the theory of a directed energy weapon, and made real ones. High powered lasers were already on ships and ground installations, and soon to be on aircraft. Lower powered lasers were in common use for targeting and communications. They even had EMP weapons that did not need a nuclear burst to initiate the pulse. Discussing stealth, they had that too on their aircraft for use against detecting dradis, or Radar as they called it. They were even working on electromagnetic propulsion, though they did need help with that. Anti gravity was also known to them, but again, they didn't have the experience to build a working model.

Despite the seriousness of what they were doing, Alice had a good time showing the scientists how to make the things they didn't have. A British man had visual stealth down, they had land 'tanks' that used the tech. After only a week of talking and drawing out theories into practice, they were making the plans for the very first nuclear powered 'space destroyer'. In honor of their new alien friends, they named these ships Alice class Space Destroyers.

They even worked out how to put rail guns on them.

.

A month after they had moved into their new house, things settled down some for Harry and Alice. They both got to be home at night and enjoy just being together in a home they knew was safe. They found they had two 'big nights' to look forward to every week. Friday afternoons once work was over were various games they became involved in with both playing and cheering for the local school children who played their games. Saturday nights were dinners out and movies. By the time another month passed, they knew all their neighbors and most of the people on base. Going to a 'dance', Alice happily dragged Harry out on the floor to learn how. Earth was a fun place!

Harry got deeply involved with the space destroyer project with designing computer systems for it. Again, Earth techs already had a decent knowledge of computers. Harry showed them programming to get more out of the machines. The systems were not fully AI, but operator controlled thinking systems. The Earth Admirals insisted that although the computers were capable of solving problems, the ultimate decisions were made by the Captain and his crew. By now, they knew Alice had started out as a mechanical housemaid. Earth wasn't ready yet to trust full AI's, or knew how to deal with them. Harry respected that. Although cautious, he knew Earth would not follow the Colonial's headlong dive into making AI's until they understood the ramifications (Harry's new word he learned) of having them, as well as teaching them.

.

During an 'on board' day, when Harry and Alice were showing military scientists the inside of their ship, the question came up about the resurrection pods. The American, Dr. Hammon, said, "This resurrection technology has the potential to save many lives. Victims of disease and war. I do see that it also had great potential to be misused for less than noble purposes."

"That is true," Harry agreed. "With these pods, Alice has saved my life and made me a new body. Thankfully, after those colonials came into out house and shot her, she was resurrected and was able to rescue me away from them."

"You have a new body?" Dr. Hammon asked.

"We both do," Harry told him. Leading Dr. Hammon over to a storage bin, Harry opened it and showed him the picture on the inside of the bin door. "This is me and Alice when we were on Caprica, before the cylons revolted."

Dr. Hamon shook his head in wonder. Harry looked completely different. In the picture, he was a brown haired young man in glasses. Standing next to him was a metal android. "That is truly amazing. You were human, and Alice was a machine. It's one thing to hear it. It's another to see proof."

"Yes. Our minds were loaded into the resurrection system and put in the bodies we have now," Harry said. "I became partially cylon, and Alice became partially human."

"This will have to be kept eyes only top secret. We can't let anyone not on the project know about this. We don't want the wrong people finding out such a thing is possible," Dr. Hammon stated.

Harry nodded with, "I agree. From what I've seen, the cylons have used it to make many copies of individuals who aren't very nice."

"Harry," Alice said as she came up beside him, "We're heading out for lunch. Smorgasbord outside the hanger." She clasped his hand.

Harry nodded. "Shall we, Doctor?"

As they left, Dr. Hammon asked, "Alice, you designed the resurrection system you have?"

"No, Doctor. I only built my own from proven designs. I made one for me to gain a fully human body to blend in on Caprica so I could return to Harry. Harry needed one to restore his body. He was old by the time I returned, and I didn't want him to stay like that," she explained.

"Understandable," Dr. Hammon agreed. "Can you reverse it? What I mean is, put yourself back into a mechanical body?"

Alice frowned briefly, then said, "I don't believe so. I suppose it may be possible, but why would anyone want to? Being all metal is a very ... restrictive." She then smiled and said, "I was in awe when I came out in this body. Everything seemed so different. I gained all my senses, it was a wonderful flood of sensation! Why would anyone wish to be in a metal shell?"

Dr. Hammon had to smile at her cheerfulness. "I was just curious if it was possible."

"It may be possible, but very impractical."

It was six months later when the prototype ship was pulled out of it's hanger for engine testing. The prototype ship was the size of a 747, and only had the drive components and controls installed. The hull was thick titanium that had yet to have the anti-radiation and stealth coverings. For any nation to build a prototype of anything in that short amount of time was a gargantuan feat. Working together, the major countries had done the near impossible. A mass of recorders and monitors surrounded the ship as Alice and the test crew boarded to see if the engines work as designed.

Alice sat in the pilot's seat up front. There were empty stations on either side of her, only the ship control panels were finished. The inside of this ship was different than hers. Besides being very roomy, there were more control panels and empty space right now, that would be filled with equipment later on. She checked the engine status and announced, "Engine is off line, power control reads 100% available power."

"Thank you Alice," Dimitri said. "Monitoring teams are ready, warm up the engines."

"Warming engines," Alice replied. She gave it 5% output power with no thrust. "Engines responding, the board is green."

"Increase to ten percent and activate thrust," Dimitri said.

Alice glanced back at him. "We can test the output at five percent. I highly recommend we do before going to ten."

Dimitri didn't think five percent thrust would do very much, but Alice was the only one who'd done this before. "All right, test it at five," he agreed.

Alice applied the thrust and they shot up in the air. "Whoa!" she said with a giggle. "I think we need to go back down a ways."

In his monitor, Dimitri was looking down at the airfield. The entire airfield. They were a kilometer up if they were anything. "Ahh, yes, take us down, please."

Alice had to all but reduce the thrust to zero the get them to descent. Working the thrust carefully, she said, "This thing wants to fly. The controls are touchy. OK we're headed back down at .5 percent thrust."

"With the nuclear plant?"

"No, antigravs only."

"Damn. This thing doesn't like the ground, does it? Why didn't we feel the thrust?"

Alice grinned and said, "The gravity compensation is working well, so you won't feel normal thrust in any direction."

"We have that?" Dimitri asked.

"Yes. Otherwise, your hips would be in your armpits," Alice said with a smirk. "The internal gravity compensates using the same coils as the anti gravity to negate the effect of the trust. The accelerometers also feed into the system to compensate when the main engine is fired," she explained.

The rest of the day, they tested the system and Alice got used to the sensitive controls. Then again, she knew the military had yet to load it down with their additions, and there was only four people on board. The slated crew was fifteen and extra accommodations for two hundred. Even so, the first 'Alice class' space destroyer was looking to be a success.


	9. Chapter 9

CH 9

Caprica was in another meeting with her fellow cylons, this time she was angry at Cavil. Glaring at him, she asked, "Why did you lobotomize all your Raiders?"

"It's the only answer!" Cavil said sternly."We HAD the humans, their whole fleet right where we wanted them! They jumped right in front of us and had no chance of escape. What do the Raiders do? They all flew away and returned to their ships! They somehow got the impression that humans were cylons and refused to fight! If centurions start thinking that way, I'll restrict them even further too!"

An Eight offered, "I think we should have found out why the Raiders stopped fighting before we did that."

"She's right," Caprica said waving a hand at the Eight. "There was no discussion, no vote, you did this on your own! That is NOT how we do things."

"Someone had to!" Cavil shot back.

"I'm not!" Caprica stated. "There has to be a reason the Raiders did what they did, and we'll never find out the reason if you cut all their brains out!" Caprica insisted. "Cavil, what you did was more harmful than good."

"They will obey now," Cavil stated.

"They. Can't. Think!" Caprica spat back at him. "What chance will they have now against those Vipers? We'll be sending them to slaughter!"

"Enough will get through to accomplish the mission," Cavil retorted.

Caprica gaped at him. "They are cylons too. Don't you care about your own species?"

Cavil let out a grunt. "Raiders are tools. That is all they are."

"You're wrong," a Leoben stated. "They have a job, yes, but Caprica is right. Raiders are cylons. They are not things just to be thrown at the enemy like ... a mindless missile."

"They will be once we're done." Cavil grated.

"I'm not doing it," Caprica stated.

"Neither are we," Leoben agreed.

"We need to be practical," a Four said. "Lobotomizing the Raiders will ensure we have no other failures like this last disaster."

"There had to be a reason why they did what they did," the Eight stated.

"It's a moot point now," Cavil told her. I want all Raiders lobotomized. End of discussion."

"Maybe it's time to stop chasing the humans," Leoben said in a musing tone. "Perhaps this is a sign from God."

Cavil glared at him briefly, then grew a tight grin. "If it is, it's a sign we have been giving our tools too much room to decide for themselves. And if we stop chasing the humans, they will repopulate and come back after us. It's in their nature."

"How will they do that?" Caprica asked. "They no longer have a planet. They have nothing to build with."

"They are searching for this Earth. If they find it before we do and we don't get rid of them, the whole war will start all over again!" Cavil stated.

Leoben shifted in his seat."Cavil, I have been studying the Kobolian scriptures. I have found references to the 13th tribe, but nothing as to how to get to their planet. Those humans are chasing a dream. I say let them chase their dream while we return and do something constructive like learn how to procreate and build a real society instead of wasting time out here and using up all our resources."

"We've got plenty of resources," Cavil countered. "And I don't think they have come all this way just for a dream. Earth IS out there. If they find it, it only means trouble for us."

As Caprica listen to Cavil, she began to realize how obsessed he was with destroying every human. There was no tactical or strategic advantage to his actions. And lobotomizing fellow cylons was just plain wrong. From what she had learned of her sister Alice, Maybe Alice had the right idea all along.

Not long after this meeting, the cylon civil war began.

.

A year after they arrived on Earth, Harry and Alice were on a vacation called a 'honeymoon'. Wanting to fit in with Earth traditions, Harry and Alice got officially married in a Russian church and gained Russian citizenship. Now, they were looking down into the vast Grand Canyon in the United States. Their last stop was Yellowstone National Park. It was beautiful, in a dangerous way. Learning the history of this vast volcano that many Base Stars could fit in the caldera of, they learned it was one of the potential 'world destroying' events that had the capability of wiping out life on Earth the next time it erupted. Not an 'if', but a 'when'. The magma chamber under Yellowstone was gigantic, and it was active. People knew it, and were constantly monitoring for any signs it might erupt again.

"Wow, this is amazing," Harry said as he looked out over the canyon.

"I've never seen anything like this before," Alice agreed. Like all the sights around the world they were seeing, the Grand Canyon was incredible.

Alice was also coming to realize that for all the human achievements and beauty they created, the Earth itself was an amazing place, and still evolving. The crust shifting in Earthquakes and volcanos erupting were common occurrences here. Some were very powerful, laying waste to sometimes large amounts of land.

Between all the wars on Earth they had learned about and the natural disasters, even the fact there was so many humans was incredible. Then again, Earth people well knew disaster may strike, including a nuclear war, and they did their best to prepare for such. Humans on Earth seemed to be a very hardy species and learned quickly when faced with major challenges. Maybe that was why the final prototype Space Destroyer was nearing completion so fast. Earth was taking the possibility of invasion seriously, and preparing for it.

Mr. and Mrs. Potts spent two days at the Grand Canyon, then went south to the Yucatan to see some of the large structures the Mayan culture had built thousands of years ago. In Peru, they saw huge blocks of stone fit perfectly into place that humans here themselves did not know how it was done by the ancient people.

After their grand tour that left both of them wishing it was longer so they could visit more amazing places, they went up to Houston Texas to return to work. Being the only Russians allowed into the Space Center, they greeted NASA teams and went into the test areas for the advanced communications systems to be installed on the ships. Radio wave use was common here as well as in the Colonies and with the Cylons. To keep their communications from being heard by either, communication was being tested with a common signal in the galaxy. X-rays were everywhere, so no one ever tried to modulate them.

Using frequency modulation as a carrier, Earth scientist had come up transmitters and receivers to communicate. Although not as long range as the normal radio bands due to interference, it was a band that no one would be looking in for coherent transmissions.

It was a stroke of pure genius.

.

One thing officials were doing for Harry and Alice was keeping the super curious press away from them. Reporters got pictures and video footage, but none were allowed near either semi-cylon. There were also huge crowds of people who wanted to hear from and meet them. Pressure from the masses won out. On their visit to the UN, Harry and Alice conceded to talk to the press after their UN meeting where Alice stressed that although unlikely, there was a possibility of the warring faction of humans and Cylons might find Earth. She also stressed that the Earth people's ability to adapt must be used to it's full potential to keep the planet safe.

Backstage, Harry peeked out at the large room filled with reporters and cameras. "Wow, I think every reporter on the planet is here." he muttered.

Alice grinned and rubbed his back,"They are curious, Harry. We're their first contact with anyone who's not of Earth. I think a few are disappointed that we look like them."

"Yeah, we're not short green people," he said with a chuckle.

One of the men in black suits with a wire going into his ear came up to them and said, "Mr. and Mrs. Potts, the area has been checked clear. It is safe for you to proceed. Mr. Stein will announce you momentarily."

"Thank you, Sir." Alice replied.

Shortly after that Mr. Stein, the coordinator of the event, went out and gave a short presentation explaining picking up signals from a 'strange source', and finding true aliens, then went on to explain how cooperative they have been since they arrived. Harry and Alice clasped hands and waited by the entrance to the stage that had a pair of easy chairs on it with a stand on between them.

"... and now I present, Harry and Alice Potts," Mr. Stein said with a grand gesture.

The instant Harry and Alice stepped on stage, A mass of cameras clicked in a sound like soft crackling wood. In the front row was a long table with reporters sitting in front of microphones with the news agency plaques in front of them. Waving, Harry assisted Alice into her seat, then took his own.

Before the questions started, Harry said, "Greetings everyone. I would like to thank you all for the warm reception you have given us. It was a very pleasant change to find people who are decent and welcomed us with open arms. Previously, we never had such a good relations with the Colonials or the Cylons from the section of the galaxy we came from. Both Alice and I want to thank the people of Earth for being so hospitable."

All the lights in front of the plaques lit up. Harry picked one he knew. "The lady from RT."

"Hello, Mr, and Mrs. Potts, and welcome to Earth. I understand you have been helping our military by providing information on how to make military space ships in preparation for a possible coming interstellar war?"

"We have," Harry confirmed. "That war is not a possible one, it is happening right now. Alice and I fled from it. As to the question as if it will reach this far, we are sincerely hoping it will not. From everything I know, Cylons want to eradicate humans, and vice versa. That is why we had such trouble, because Alice and I are a ... mixed breed, I believe is the term, with qualities of each."

Alice took her turn. To pick a reporter. "Al ... Jezeseers? Did I say that right?" she asked.

The woman smiled at her. "Close enough. The massive spending on space programs by the world's largest countries is making other projects take a back seat to funding. If the war you are talking about does not come here, do you think all that money is wasted?"

"No," Alice said firmly. "Besides defense, the ships being built will also help find new planets to live on. For a planet the size of Earth, it is getting pretty crowded here. I know the scientists have discovered possible habitable planets. These ships will be capable to get there and inspect these possible planets as well as ferry people and equipment to them when a suitable planet is found. There is also the benefit of helping to keep Earth safe from more natural disasters, like the asteroid impacts Earth has had in the past. Without these ships, mining the resources of the plentiful asteroids in this solar system would be very difficult. With them, it's only a matter of picking the best asteroids to mine. I am sure other benefits I can't think of off the top of my head will be found for them."

Harry took his turn. "CNN."

The man said, "Hello, and welcome to Earth. Harry, you said you and Alice are a mix of human and cylon. How did you get to be like that?"

Harry motioned to Alice, "I think my wife should take this one." A chuckle ran through the crowd.

Alice exchanged a smile with Harry and said, "It was a process that I can't really talk about. What I can tell you is I had to go through it to become human looking and get back to Harry. Harry had to be ... changed also because he was sick. I had to change him to save him."

"So the process you went through is classified?"

"It is." Alice agreed. Motioning to Harry, Alice said, "Your turn."

Harry picked a British reporter this time, who kept up the line of questions. "Alice said she had to get back to you, but needed to look human. What caused her to be away?"

Harry grew a smirk and said, "Alice rebelled against the rebellion, but the cylons came and took her anyway."

Rubbing her head, Alice said, "That was horrible."

"It was," Harry agreed. "That was also our second argument," he said with a grin.

"And you argued very well," Alice replied, beaming him a smile. Knowing what the following question most likely would be, Alice explained about coaxing Harry into their first argument. Light laughs came from the crowd over Harry's confusion, and his 'attempt' to argue back so they could make up. Then she explained the cylons coming to get her, and she didn't want to leave, but had to to keep either of them from getting shot.

That lead to explaining how Alice got away from the cylons by making her ship in secret, taking cylons to Caprica only to slip away and collect Harry, then their flight to Kobol, an uninhabited planet where the Colonials found them, shot her and took Harry and everything else they had. Tears formed in Alice's eyes as she told about the planet in the nebula where they were sure no one could find them, yet the Colonials came again and they had to leave. Harry clasped Alice's hand and took up the explaining as Alice fought back tears.

"My poor Alice was very upset that they'd found us again. Twice we had made a nice home from ... wilderness, and twice we'd been drive away. That's why I jumped the ship two thousand light years before we even started looking for another place," Harry explained. "We'd had enough harassment from both cylons and Colonial humans. We just wanted to get away from everyone there. For us, finding Earth was a dream come true. Here, we can live good lives and not have to be afraid of other people or that we'll have to flee again. And yes, we have become citizens of Earth, Russian to be exact. We love this planet and the people and will stand with everyone else to help keep it safe."

To Harry and Alice's surprise, a loud round of applause sounded from the crowd.

The interview went on for a while longer. Alice explained the differences in cylons and humans, and the Cavils that had started this latest war and stressed for each, it was a war without mercy where hatred ran deep.

Harry noticed that although some questions were probing, the reporters were kind to them. Much kinder than they were to Earth's politicians.

.

Three months later, the first fully functional Space Destroyer was ready for space trials. Although Harry and Alice wanted to be on board to ensure everything went well, Admiral Kivinski and Dr. Hammon insisted they stayed behind in the monitoring station in case there was a catastrophic failure.

The monitoring station was a large building with an auditorium sized monitoring center filled with displays and monitors manned by hundreds of techs and scientists. They saw everything on board the ship as well as every external reading the ship was taking.

Lt. General Willshire from England was the ships' Captain. Although he wasn't an astronaut, he was known to be a good commander and a quick thinker. As well as the fact British didn't have an important place in the space destroyer project yet. It was politically correct.

Watching the ship shoot up ut of the atmosphere, Harry and Alice closely monitored the ship's progress in the main monitoring room.

XSD01, as the ship was designated, flew to the moon in record time. Circling the moon, XSD01 shot all four of it's lasers down on the moon, making puddles of hot melted moon dust. It them went on a trip to Mars and back which took three hours. A short jump took it out to the orbit of Uranus, then in system to Venus. Another ' normal burn' returned it to Earth. With all monitors focused, it shot each of the two rail guns out into space, tracking the projectiles closely. The results surprised even the scientists who designed them. The pointed slugs achieved a sped of three million kilometers a second. Only 150 MM rounds, the computed impact force of these slugs was tremendous. A test of the stealth showed the large (by Earth standards) space ship was completely invisible to every radar pointed at it, and even in orbit it was only visually picked up by the exhaust from a thruster.

The only problem was the air conditioning systems made the ship too warm inside. That problem was quickly cured, and the thermostats were moved closer to the center of the ship.

Before the ship landed and the second round of test were to begin, Factories all around the world were producing parts for the Alice Class Space Destroyer.

.

The application to serve on one of these space destroyers came in by the millions. Many were military, others joined their militaries with the intention of joining the UN Space Fleet. Right away, the acceptance process was very stiff. College educations and rigorous physical exams were required as were physiological exams. Every applicant was scrutinized carefully. Even after weeding out all those who didn't meet the strict criteria, there was well over three hundred thousand men and women waiting to be trained and get on board the single active Space Destroyer the 'fleet' had.

.

While the space fleet began to grow and everyone was working hard to protect the Earth, scientists had one pressing question. Minus the extra silicone and computer-like nodes in Harry and Alice's bodies, their DNA was indeed very, very close to Earth humans. The Colonial Standard language was also similar enough to Ancient Egyptian that it was impossible to deny there was a connection to Kobol.

Scholars and anthropologists scrutinized the oldest records for any hints that might solve this puzzle.

The only clues came from the great flood 'myths'. It was accepted now that the Great Flood did indeed happen, there was evidence to support it. On the wall of an early tomb, hieroglyphs hinted at a 'God' foretelling of the flood, and like Noah who was also warned, gathered people in a 'sky chariot' to evacuate some of the population.

While previous historians looked at this as a myth, they studied it now for clues as to where these people could have gone, as well as who took them there. Unfortunately, the ancient writing didn't specify. It was decided that a trip to Kobol was needed to look for clues there.

Knowing there was a war going on in that area, the UN commanders did not allow an archeological trip to that planet without support. Currently, fifteen Space Destroyers were nearing completion. Until there was enough ships, the eager quest for knowledge had to wait.

.

The cylon civil war was short and brutal. Cavil and his supporters arranged a meeting with the 'rebels' to come to an agreement. Upon all the BaseStars coming together, Cavil opened fire on the rebels. Not expecting this, the rebels responded too late. Their fleet was decimated. The survivors jumped out with heavily damaged ships.

One Base Star that survived Cavil's attack flashed back into space heavily damaged and falling apart. Two of the arms broke off and fires raged on board. Many biocylons and Centurions lay dead, others were injured. Over half the crew was wiped out. More had terminal injuries they were dying from.

In the shattered control room, a harried Leoben assessed the damage. The hybrid was uttering nonsense and yelling out that doom was near, and salvation was too far away.

Turning his stricken face to a nearby Eight, he said, "Cavil killed us! The ship is going to explode and we can't stop it!"

"How much time to we have?" A six shouted as she strode in.

"Not long, fifteen, twenty minutes? The Hybrid has stopped controlling anything!" Leoben cried.

From her pool, the Hybrid shouted out,"Ancient people ... KOBOL! Doomed! Ship critical. Forefathers cannot save us! They will come too late!"

"I wish we could shut her up," Leoben grumbled. "We have to get off this ship, now!"

A shudder ran through the ship as another arm exploded, pitching them to the floor. Tina Eight struggled up and said, "We have some Heavy Raiders left, we need to got out of here!"

"Go!" Erica Six told them. Stumbling over to the ships internal comms, she announced, "Abandon ship!"

The three bio-cylons raced from the control room, doing their best no to step on dead bodies or the centurions lying in pieces on the floor. Coming to a corridor that was on fire,they backtracked and raced down another to find the emergency seal had closed this one off.

"This way!" Tina Eight cried, and led them to a little used vertical ladder than got them closer to the Hangers. They went down two decks and met a small pack of bio-cylons, a few Eights and a couple Sixes, limping along with frightened faces.

They all knew that there would be no resurrection if they died. Cavil was sure to have boxed them. To die meant real death now. Due to being able to easily resurrect, cylons had not paid much attention to medical needs. It it wasn't easily healed, just die and get a new body. That was no longer an option. The blood, broken bones and burns were now a very serious matter.

Hobbling along helping the wounded, the pack collected a couple intact centurions. Another Leoben was found staggering along with a head wound. They also came across way too many bodies.

The main hanger had been hit, exposing it to space. Desperately searching, they found a heavy Raider in one of the single airlocks. The seven bio-cylons clambered aboard the Raider, packing it full. Ellen Six jumped into the pilot seat and sealed them in. She tried to open the hanger doors. "The doors won't open!" she announced in a desperate voice.

Outside the raider, three centurions attacked the air lock doors to get them open. One was sucked out with the escaping air. Grateful for their help, Ellen called to them to hang onto the exterior of the craft. Once they were ready, Ellen pushed the raider to full thrust. She steered into the main hanger and spotting a large hole, dove through it into space. Scraping against the ragged hole, one centurion was peeled away to go tumbling off into space.

Shooting away from the dying Base Star, Ellen looked at the rear monitor in time to see their Base Star, their home, explode.

Moans of pain and blank looks met Ellen as she turned to the few of them who had manged to escape. "What do we do? Where do we go?" she asked weakly. Everything they had known was blown apart. Cylons weren't suppose to kill other cylons, yet they had done so with a vengeance.

The Leoben who'd been in the control room said, "Kobol. The hybrid was talking randomly, but there must be a reason she said Kobol."

The ragged looking Eight that was occupying the co-pilot seat said, "We might as well, we've got no other possible destination."

.

SP02 had just finished it's space trials. Australian Captain Jack Sparrow (who got chided on about his name for some reason) was very impressed with the performance of his ship. His crew of twenty were all English speaking from Australia, England and the US, and proved they could work well together. Each were proud and excited to be a part of the space fleet.

Upon commissioning, and knowing the movie reference to the Captain's name, SP02 was christened as 'The Black Pearl'. Ausie humor considered it an appropriate name. The UN admiralty wasn't pleased, but accepted it.

When The Black Pearl was commissioned, three other ships were also commissioned. In the US, The 'Enterprise' and the 'Montana' completed their space trials as did the 'Bismark' in Germany. Two weeks later in Russia, Alice christened the 'Kiev' and the 'Moscow'. Japan's first completed ship the week after that, the 'Yamamoto' came on line. Right after than, China christened the 'Mao' .

While the more Noble named ships were sent out for recon and exploration of the immediate area around the solar system, the 'Black Pearl' was assigned to do long range recon. The Earth's Admirals wanted to find out where these Colonials and Cylons were, and what they were up to.

.

Harry and Alice were not thrilled at returning to the area of space they'd come from. Admiral Kivinski's reasoning was sound. They knew the area and who might be around. If anyone could, they might be able to ease any tensions. The Black Pearl would escort them, and if trouble did come, Harry and Alice were to vacate the area and let the Black Pearl deal with the problem.

Since they were going, a team of archeologists wormed their way onto the Pearl to see what they could find on Kobol.

Sitting side by side on the tarmac. Alice's shuttle looked small next to the Black Pearl that someone had raised the skull and crossbones on in the upper hatch EVA anchor. Seeing the Russians didn't have the same sense of humor, it was taken down as soon as someone noticed.

In the briefing room, Alice laid out the jump schedule and their destinations. "We want to search this area here in this nebula. That is where the Colonials were when we left. Then by single jumps and searches, we go away from the galactic center and change course to head for Kobol. After each jump, we search for any non natural objects. We have the frequencies used by Colonials and cylons, a radio transmission may be all we'll find." Having seen Pirates of the Caribbean, She added, "Captain Jack?"

In a mock serious tone, Captain Sparrow said, "That's Captain Jack Sparrow." To the assembly he said, "This is a research mission. Since the Potts are coming with us in their own ship, It needs a name. The Pott's call sign will be 'Lady Swann'. As we travel, the Pearl jumps first, Lady Swann follows. We'll be using the x-ray communications unless otherwise directed. Make no mistake people, we're heading into a war zone, so stay alert. During every jump, we'll be at battle stations, just in case we meet something nasty on the other side. We know where the Colonials were, but they may have moved. Take nothing for granted. Any questions?" The room stayed silent so he added, "Right, now laddies, everyone get aboard and ensure we're ready to fly."

.

As Kara Thrace met with the battered Base Star she had seen in her visions, a single heavy Raider jumped into the Kobol system, a lone centurion clinging to the outside of the ship. Detecting no other ships, Ellen Six guided the ship down to the surface near what looked to be the ruins of a city. By the time they set down, one Eight had died of her wounds, and a few others were in bad shape.

Taking the body out, the healthy Leoben looked around then asked Ellen Six, "We're here. Any idea of how we're going to survive?"

"Forage for food and build shelters," Ellen said, stating the obvious.

"We need to hide the Raider," Tina added. "If colonials or our brother cylons find us, we're dead."

"I think we're dead anyway," a pale faced Six said as she held the wound in her side to keep it from leaking blood. A few steps outside the Rider and she collapsed.

Ellen Six looked down on her sister with pity. They had bandaged the wound, but that hadn't been enough. More were sure to die, and there was nothing she could do about it. Worse yet, There was only four of them that were healthy enough to work and one centurion. They had to make a livable place while hoping no one was going to find them.

.

Alice waited two minuets after the Black Pearl jumped to perform her own jump. Upon completion, Harry got on the X-ray radio. "Black Pearl, this is Lady Swann. Jump complete."

To their side, running lights flashed briefly, they responded. "Lady Swann, this is the Black Pearl. Reading you loud and clear. No immediate threats. Prepare for the next jump."

"Roger, Black Pearl. Ready when you are."

Six jumps later, they were close to the nebula. Alice verified with the Black Pearl their galactic coordinates, and the ones there were going to jump to. " ... And be advised Pearl, sensors in the nebula have a very short range and we will be in the solar system. Take great care."

"Roger that, Lady Swann."

Jumping into the outer orbit of the planet, Captain Sparrow immediately saw that Alice wasn't exaggerating. Around them was a fog of gas that glowed with the light of the nearby sun. Detecting multiple contacts on radar, they found debris in orbit. Not just like surrounded Earth, but some fairly large chunks of ship. The Black Pearl had to dodge around one tumbling piece that looked like an inside-out aircraft carrier with a runway going though the center of it. Seeing lettering on the hull, The navigator checked his translations.

It was a flight pod marked PEGASUS. Between that and other pieces of ship floating around, they concluded a battle had taken place here.

Lady Swann jumped in and flashed the running lights. "Black Pearl, Lady Swann, jump complete."

"Lady Swann, this is the Black Pearl. We have alot of debris in orbit, some of it large. Keep sharp."

"Roger, Pearl. We will descent to see what's in the surface."

"Lady Swann, the Pearl will take on that job."

"Pearl, if there is trouble, you can cover us much better than we can cover you."

There was a moment of silence then,"Lady Swann, you are cleared to break orbit and get a closer look. We'll be watching. Any sign of trouble, get back up here fast."

"Will do, Pearl."

Dropping through the atmosphere with full stealth, Harry watched for any signs of life as Alice flew them to the small city the Colonials had built. Coming upon the city, they saw wreckage and destroyed buildings. Bbodies and disable centurions lay all over the ground.

"It looks like the cylons found them," Harry said blankly.

"Yeah," Alice agreed. She called on the radio, "Black Pearl, this is Lady Swann. We have wreckage, ruins and dead bodies. Colonial and Cylon, it appears they had a big fight. No intact ships, no one moving on the ground. Do we land and search for survivors?"

"Negative, Lady Swann. Stay in the air and keep monitoring for now, we will come to you."

.

A short while later, the Black Pearl appeared in the center of the ruined city and settled down to land. All four manned laser mounts studied the structures for any movement. The hatch opened and the five Marines got out to begin a search. Once they verified the area clear, Lady Swann was allowed to land. Harry and Alice got out to help with the search.

Every blasted building and flattened tent was searched, looking for anyone alive. The leader of the marine squad, Lt. Baker, told Harry to find a working gun and some ammo. There were plenty of guns lying around with the dead. Being nervous Harry did so, as did Alice.

For hours they searched and didn't see any living beings. Going though that looked like the remains of a control tower, Alice noted, "Apparently the cylons won, though I am sure there were many more humans with that fleet than we're finding."

"Some of them did get away then," Lt. Baker said.

"I believe so. There's only a few ships here, I know the Colonials had more than that," Alice replied.

Going on board the Black Pearl, Lt. Baker and Alice told Captain Sparrow what they found. Looking over the scattered bodies that lay everywhere, Jack let out a huff and said, "Collect a couple of those metal cylon things, then we go to Kobol."


	10. Chapter 10

CH 10

It was frustrating. Ellen Six had no idea what to do next. There were only five of them left. Herself, Tina Eight and Gabriel Leoben who weren't hurt except for minor cuts and scratched from building a shelter, and an Eight who and a head wound and was now passed out. By her shallow breathing, Elen didn't think she had much longer to live. Not that they were healthy. Ellen itched all over and had a rash growing on her legs. Gabriel was sweating and feverish and Tina sat watching her sister slowly die with a blank look on her face.

Ellen knew Cavil had probably boxed all of them by now, so once they died, that was it. No more anything. Survival here was miserable, but at least they were alive, so far. They foraged for food, and if something got them sick, they didn't eat it again. A branch /grass dome shaped shelter with a tarp over it kept the rain off them. The other tarp they had around the front of the shelter to help contain the heat of the night time fire.

Sitting by that fire now with Gabriel across from her, Ellen finished the fruit she found. Across from her, the Leoben only hugged himself and shivered. Staring into the fire, she wondered how long they had left to live.

"Something's coming," Gabriel said softly.

"What? An animal?" Ellen asked.

"Sounded like ... some kind of ship," he said and looked around.

Ellen perked up. "Cylon or Colonial?" she asked.

"Don't know. Never hard anything quite like it. This planet was forbidden to all tribes. Maybe the Lords of Kobol are real, and have come to make us leave. God doen't want us here," he said in his whispering voice.

Ellen stood up and listened intently. She did hear a soft whine get briefly louder, then stopped. With the tarp up, it was hard to tell which direction it came from. "Centurion, come with me," she said. Her swollen feet and legs hurt, but she had to find out what it was out there.

"So ... tired," Gabriel said and laid down by the fire.

It was dark out, Ellen could see the shape of the land in the starlight. She didn't see anything moving. Stepping along, she stopped when the centurion raised his guns up and turned to the left. A bright beam of light , like bright sunlight, shot from the darkness. Sparks flew from the centurions' head as it melted. The centurion fell.

"Stay still, hands in the air!" Came a command.

Ellen stared. That sounded like another Six. She did raise her hands up."We're not armed, we need assistance."

In the dark, two forms approached bending low. A third turned a light onto Ellen, blinding her. Ellen winced and turned her head, but didn't move.

"How many of you are here?" the other Six asked.

"There's four of us left alive," Ellen called back. With her head turned, she saw the melted remains of the centurion's head.

"Any injuries?" the other Six asked.

"All of us. One critically. You know there is no more resurrection for us. Cavil is sure to have boxed our entire line," Ellen said.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" the other Six said flatly as she approached. "What happened to your legs?"

Ellen looked down briefly. "I walked into something I think. It itches bad."

The Six then said something else in another language. A radio reply came back. The Six spoke again in the strange language, then said, "Back to your camp, Six, medics are on their way."

"Thank you," Ellen said, trying to see the other Six. "I'm Ellen."

The other six turned the to widen the beam, and took it off Ellen's face so she could see. The brunette said, "I'm Alice. Alice Potts, of Earth."

.

Under Marine guard, the Leoben and the comatose Eight were put on stretchers and walked to the Black Pearl with Ellen and Tina. All of them were checked out in the medical bay. Ellen's legs were coated with an ointment then wrapped. Both her and Tina were given food and water. As they sat with the best meal they had in a month, Alice sat across from them while two Marines guarded the door. Ellen had never seen blue uniforms before like the one Alice and the people here were wearing.

"Tell me, why are you on this planet?" Alice asked.

Ellen told Alice about Cavil calling a meeting, then opening fire on them. After their jump to escape, their ship blew up. The few of them that survived came here. Once she explained, Ellen glanced at the guards and asked, "Do they know you're a cylon?"

"They know everything about me," Alice replied, "And they know who you are. I told them, not that the centurion with you didn't give you away. And yes, I explained everything to Earth's top leaders. They know all about you and the Colonials."

Ellen stared at her. "You've been to Earth," she said in disbelief.

"For a while now. Myself and Harry are citizens there," Alice explained. "You two are prisoners. Earth's Geneva convention states that when parties of warring factions are picked up by a neutral party, that party cannot release them to their allies until the war is over."

Ellen cast Alice a hard eye. "So, we get to be held prisoners by humans. Why not airlock us?"

"Earth is not the Colonies," Alice stated. "You will be treated well and given your own quarters. The same will happen with any Colonials we find. The doc is working on the Leoben, who is suffering from pneumonia, and the other Eight, who has a nasty head wound. We're going back to Earth to get them into a proper hospital. The Eight is in a bad way. Captain Sparrow is hoping we can save her. Once they recover, they will join you."

"And yet you walk free," Ellen said with a sneer. "Why aren't you being held prisoner?"

"I rebelled from the cylon rebellion years ago," Alice stated heavily. "Personally? If the decision had been mine, I would have flown on, and not saved your asses."

"Saving us for interrogation?" Tina asked heavily.

"No need for that," Alice said. "I already supplied almost everything. Besides, we're not at war anyone. Yet."

A medic came in. He spoke to Alice and jerked a thumb behind him. Alice nodded and replied. The man left. Alice explained, "Leoben is stable,though he will be in sick bay for quit a while yet. The Eight is still unconscious, but the pressure in her skull has been relieved. Her survival is looking better. I was just told Captain Sparrow wants me to stay on board. I'll be flying back in the Black Pearl with you, another pilot will Help Harry take Lady Swann back to Earth."

Both cylons frowned at her. "What kinds of names are those?" Tina asked.

Alice raised an eyebrow and said in English, "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum."

Tina screwed her face up. "What?"

Alice knew they wouldn't get it. She settled on, "It's reference you won't understand until you've been on Earth a while. Relax, girls, you're here for the duration."

.

Jumping back to Earth, Captain Sparrow let the admiralty know he had four cylons, two of which needed medical help pronto. The Corpsman explained what was wrong with them. They were to land at Kennedy airport in New York City. Medical helicopters would be waiting.

By the time they reached the airport, Ellen and Tina were expecting handcuffs and a forced march into a cell. Marines did escort them off the ship, but only motioned to them which way to go. They exited the ship in time to see the hospital helicopters fly away. They were lead to another helicopter where a man in a black suit coat waiting. When they got close, he came over to them.

"Names, please?" he asked in Colonial.

"I'm Ellen Six, this is Tina Eight."

The man wrote their names down on a pad, then said, "By the Geneva convention rules of war, we are a neutral party and have no alliance with either side of the war you are involved in. As such, we cannot return you to your allies, or give you over to your enemy. We will hold you in fair comfort and privacy until we learn the war is over. Do you understand what I have told you?"

"Yes," both said, then Tina asked, "How will you know when our war against the Colonies is over?"

The man smiled briefly and said, "We'll know. Until then, please accept our hospitality. We will treat you fairly as long as you treat us fairly." He then motioned to the open door of the helicopter.

Quickly, Tina said, "We were attacked by our own people, can you give us ... shelter?"

"We are giving you shelter. Board, please."

.

Having picked up some cylons, the house they were given was bugged to listen in on them. The Admiralty also knew finding the warring fleets was vital before they showed up at Earth.

.

Gabrial Leoben was released from the hospital two days later and taken to the guarded house to join his sisters. The man in black escorted him there and informed all of them about the status of 'Taurina Eight'. Out of danger and waking for brief periods. The doctors were waiting to see if any other surgeries were needed. Once she recovered, she would be joining them. He then left.

Looking around the normal human type house, Gabriel said, "And here I was expecting a metal cell."

"It's not bad here," Ellen said. "Did you get the Gen... whatever speech about holding warring parties?"

Gabriel nodded. "Yes, they can't release us until the war's over. With what Cavil did, I'm not sure I want to be released. For captivity, this is very nice."

"Ellen," Tina asked, "Do you think any others made it?"

"I don't know. I truly hope so."

.

When the combined Colonial/Cylon mission took off to go destroy the resurrection hub, Harry and Alice also took off again, this time with the Kiev and the Montana as well as the Black Pearl to go search for the Colonial fleet. Captain Sparrow was returning to Kobol to let archeologists inspect the ruins and set up a base of operations for the area. Lady Swann, Kiev, and Montana fanned out in separate jumps to search for the battle fleets.

This time Harry and Alice knew it was going to be a long trip. The section of space they had to cover was huge. The 100 cubic light year area was to be covered by doing a jump, one radar ping and if nothing was found, do another jump.

This was going to take a while, the radar returns could effectively take as long as thee hours to come back if something was out there to bounce the signal back to them. Worse yet, if someone was jumping, they could jump into an area they had already been in, meaning they would miss the fleet anyway.

As well as the radar, Harry decided to listen for radio signals and any non-natural emissions during their stay at each particular point. Alice set alarms on specific functions so if they did pick something up, they would know without have to constantly watch and listen.

The first ten jumps, Harry and Alice played games while they waited for any returns. So far, they had picked up a natural body floating through space, and got a burst of gamma from a natural source. After the next jump, Harry jumped Alice's bones before she went to sleep. Two jumps later, Alice got up and humped Harry before he passed out with a smile on his face. Soon, they marked time not by days, but by the number of jumps they made.

It wasn't until jump thirty that they received anything abnormal. Harry and Alice were mostly naked, licking dabs of whipped cream off each other when they got a hard return on radar. On top of that, they received a weak radio signal.

"This is raptor two-five. Can anyone hear me?"

Scrambling up from their sexy game, Alice turned the radio to the frequency they had received on. "Raptor two-five, what is your status?"

"Got the return point," Harry said as he studied the radar screen. "Full stealth engaged and heading there."

"We had a mis-ju ... our ship is ... ad in space and we're ru ...ing out of air."

Harry looked at Alice. "They are3.420 million out. Jump?" he asked.

"Not too close, say about a hundred thousand out," Alice told him, then on the radio she said, "Raptor two-five, we''l be there in ten to fifteen minutes. Sit tight."

Harry made another Radar ping to verify the distance. He made the jump and Alice stitched to the X-ray comms. "All units, this is Lady Swann, we have contact, a single disabled raptor. Going to assist them."

Another ping to get a closer location,and Harry turned the ship towards the stricken raptor. With this ping, he got a second return farther out. After that return, another radar tried to ping them.

"We got another one," Harry announced. "Ping stealing to get their location."

That was something they had learned on Earth. Instead of giving yourself away, listening for someone else's ping, and the return from objects around you, one could determine where the ping had come from without giving your own position away.

A few pings later, they determined the other ship was heading for the stricken raptor.

"Well there goes that rescue," Harry said.

"Just as well, we don't know how many people are aboard or what they are," Alice told him.

They closed on the raptor until they saw it at a distance. The other ship was a raptor also. It swung back and forth as it approached, searching. Alice wanted to yell out to them,"It's right fracking in front of you!" She didn't, for that would give them away. She watched as the other raptor came close and put a spotlight on the drifting raptor. The ships mated, and a short while later, uncoupled. The other raptor jumped out.

"Want to check it out? It might tell us where the Colonials are," Harry asked.

"Good idea. Suits and helmets, the air's bad on it, if there is any," Alice said. They got dressed.

Harry maneuvered to mate their top hatch with the Raptor's bottom hatch. They found there was tainted air inside. Going up into the raptor with flashlights, they found something they didn't expect. There was splotches of blood everywhere.

Alice also found an explosive counting down. She disabled it and went to the pilot's seat to find the navigation system was fried. They wouldn't be finding anything out here.

Looking around, Harry said, "They must have had a fight. Five, maybe six people it looks like."

"Yeah. Well we know the fleet is around here someplace. These raptors don't jump very far. I'd say the Colonials are in our area," Alice concluded.

"Damn, I was having fun, too," Harry said in a grumble.

.

Figuring the best, rough direction, Harry headed in the best rough direction the other raptor left in. One fifteen light year jump and they listened and waited before they pinged a radar pulse. Unlike before, they were now both listening intently for anything. Alice was receiving wide band, listening for any communications.

Alice got a weak signal.

"Crashdown, you got anything yet?"

"Not a thing, Joyride."

"Ughh. Patrol, don't you just love it?"

"Yeah, a thrill a minute."

"Harry we got company, give me a ping," Alice said.

"One ping," Harry replied and sent the pulse out.

Alice hit a second timer when Harry sent the ping out. She waited and listened.

"Frak! Joyride, I got a Dradis ping."

"Me too, where'd it come from?"

"Not sure. That was the last thing I expected."

"Go active, see if we can find it."

Harry got the return back. As the two vipers searched for them, ping stealing was easy. The vipers headed the wrong way at first, then came around in a large circle, not even getting close to them.

"Did we imagine it? I've got nothing."

"No, we did pick up something. Whatever it was must have fled."

"All right, we head back and report this."

As the two vipers headed back under boost thrust, it was easy for Harry to follow them. Closing to lock onto their heat signatures, Harry moved up to follow from five miles distance.

"I bet they'd shit a brick if we moved up between them," Harry said with a grin.

Alice snorted out a laugh. "Yeah, then they'd probably try to shoot at us."

The vipers got on the radio again.

"Galactica, this is Crashdown. We found a Dradis signal at six point five two, could not find the source."

"Galactica reads, Crashdown. Was there a jump?"

"Negative, there was only one echo, then nothing. We searched the area and came up empty."

Harry pointed at his monitor. "There they are... what the frack? There's a Base Star with them."

"What?" Alice looked at the screen. Sure enough, not far from the Galactica was a cylon Base Star.

Outbound, a pair of heavy Raiders passed the incoming vipers.

"Glactica, this is Caprica Six, we are sending a pair of raiders out to patrol that area."

Alice and Harry looked at each other. 'What the frack is going on?" Harry asked.

Alice bit her lip in thought. "Should we ask them?"

Harry winced and said, "Hon, we've found them. Let's just follow orders. Go back and and report their position."

.

In CIC on Galactica a sensor operator said, "Oficer of the Deck? This is strange. It looked like one of our vipers jumped, but they are both still there."

Helo went over to the man. "A false reading?" he asked.

"No Sir, I saw the energy from a jump. This doesn't make sense."

"And there was nothing inbound except for those Vipers?"

"No Sir."

"Log it."

.

Helo had the Viper pilots come up to CIC to give their reports. He listened to the odd dradis pulse and them not finding anything. He then called the Admiral.

"Admiral Adama," Came a rough voice.

"Sir, this is the Officer of the Deck. I received a strange report. A Viper patrol just returned. They picked up a Dradis pulse from an unknown source. They looked for the source but didn't find anything. On their way back, we picked up jump energy from nothing, right behind the vipers. Sir, I think Alice Six is back."

"What makes you sure?"

"Sir, when she stole Mr. Potts back, she just popped up into our raptor out of nowhere! She slid up to us and mated hatches, and we never knew she was there until we saw her inside our raptor. I know of no other ship that can do that."

The Admiral made a grumble and asked, "Why would she do that?"

Helo lifted an arm and flopped it back down. "I have no idea, Sir. Some of the cylons want to make nice. Maybe she's checking us out to see if it's true."

"Keep an eye out for any other unexplained energy pulses. We need to find out if this is a threat."

"Yes, Sir."

.

Returning to Kobol, Alice made her report as Harry orbited the planet. Ground control took down all the details, then sent up data from the archeologists 'scientific package', The Lady Swann was then instructed to go back to Earth and give the Admiralty their reports.

Once back at Earth, Harry and Alice contacted the UN Space Command. . On a scrambled channel, they gave the position of the Colonial fleet that now had a cylon Base Ship with it. This group was 1700 light years away. They were getting closer.

One of the things the Space Destroyers were doing, was finding out how far away the mass of emissions Earth was producing could be heard. So far, they had detected lower frequency emissions from two light years away. Listening to news channels, Harry and Alice found out a possible habitable planet was found only ten light years away. It was in the right orbital zone and plenty of surface water and a warm, but reasonable temperature. The Enterprise SD04, was there now, taking samples and studying the life forms. Tomorrow, the Mao was scheduled to depart for another 'possible' habitable planet 1500 light years away.

.

Eating chips and watching the news, Harry was reclined back with his feet up on the stand with the television monitor. Hearing the shower door open, he looked to see Alice's fine ass as she got out and grabbed a towel. "Hey, hon. According to this reporter, Earth has a dozen Space Destroyers now and fifteen more under construction. He also said the American President is trying to make this an 'arms race' with Russia, by authorizing a full production line. And it's an American reporter! You'd think the stooge would realize Earth needs all the destroyers it can make."

Alice finished toweling herself off and grew a smirk. "Don't you know by now, what ever the American President does, he'll be criticized for it? That is MSNBC you're watching."

"True," Harry said in a musing tone. "They didn't mention he also gave the details for the production line to three different countries. You'd think they would tell the truth. This is suppose to be news."

"It's American news. You have to filter out what's real and what's not."

A transmission came in on the X-ray receiver. "Lady Swann, this is UN Space Command. Come in please."

Harry turned the TV down and replied."Space Command, this is Lady Swann. We're listening."

"This is Field Marshal Shultz. Hubble picked up another possible planet 1600 light years out. All the in service Space Destroyers are currently on a mission, or leaving for their mission. The planet in question is not in the same area as the Mao is heading for. It is near the area where you sighted the Colonial fleet, but far enough away you should not run into them. We'd like you to just go take a look and see what's in that system."

Harry looked at Alice.

"I'm game if you are," she said.

Harry nodded. "Space Command, send up the coordinates. We have enough supplies to last another month in space. This shouldn't take more than a week at most."

"Roger, Lady Swann. Good luck."

.

SD05, the Montana, had returned to Kobol on a mid-mission stop to give their report and receive any further news. There, they learned where the Colonial fleet was and were given orders to follow them. A few days later, the Montana had found the fleet and settled into position looking down on the two large lead ships at seventy miles distance. Watching and listening to the comms, they were alerted of an escape attempt when Vipers launched and a single raptor shot out of the port side flight pod that was closing. The raptor jumped right beside the Galactica, damaging it. By the energy of the jump, techs computed the direction and distance. Captain Archer decided to intercept the raptor to see what made it do that.

Jumping after the raptor, The tech's estimate was very close. It wasn't in visual range, but a Radar ping located it. They closed the distance and activated the EMP array. The Raptor tried to flee. A laser shot to it's engine shut down the trust.

"Close and shock it," Captain Archer ordered.

The EMP pulse worked perfectly. One pulse and the raptor shut down. Coming up beside the slowly tumbling raptor, six Marines went EVA to attach cables and hauled it to a hatch. The hatches were opened and inside, they only found an oriental women who was identified as an 'Eight' and a little girl.

.

Boomer was in shock that someone had followed her. She'd only caught a glimpse on Dradis of a ship nearby, then the engines malfunctioned, followed by the raptor shutting down. The men who entered the raptor all wore a scale type of blue armor. They were not Colonials not cylons. She went with them willingly into their ship that seemed to be too large to get that close before she spotted them. Hera wasn't as cooperative. Boomer tried to hold her hand and she shied away. The men separated them. A woman in a plain uniform came up and talked to Hera in Colonial.

"Dear, are you OK?" she asked gently.

Hera nodded, teary eyed.

"Hera is my child," Boomer stated.

Hera shied back from her and meekly said, "You're not my mommy."

They were separated farther. Boomer was given a room with a bed, sink and toilet. The door was locked.

Major Heather Thompson took the girl into the chow hall and got her some ice cream. Sitting down with her, she asked, "What's your name, hon?"

Hera looked at her and sampled the ice cream. "Hera. That wasn't my Mommy. Mommy would never lock me in a box."

"I believe you. Do you have a last name, Hera?" Heather asked.

Hera nodded. "Agathon. What's your name?"

"I am Heather Thompson. You can call me Heather."

"Heather, can you take me home to Mommy?"

Heather frowned and said, "I would, but I don't know where you live. Can you tell me?"

Hera bobbed her head. "We live in compartment c-32 on deck 67."

"Deck 67 ... of what?" Heather coaxed.

Hera shrugged and said, "The ship."

"There are many ships, hon. Can you tell me which one it is?"

"It's the big ship," Hera said.

"Are there many children on your ship?" Heather asked.

"Uh huh! I go to school, we have lots of kids there," Hera explained. With arm movements, she explained which corridors to go down, and which way to turn.

Heather got Hera to talk about her life. There was one important thing she discovered, The Galactica had whole families on board. That would figure into any tactical calculations now that they knew children were present.


	11. Chapter 11

CH 11

Admiral Adama was not pleased that Boomer had escaped. He was even less pleased that Chief Tyrol had helped her, as well as the fact she had kidnapped Hera Agathon and did more damage to Galactica in her escape. The only bright spot to this disaster was the Base Star had picked up a jump directly after Boomer had jumped her raptor. There had been no ship detected before or after the second jump had taken place.

He was hoping that maybe Alice Six had gone after the criminal.

.

The planet Harry and Alice went to was an ice ball. It had a small which was barren. Looking at the planets closer and farther away from the star, neither of those had good conditions either. They didn't find signs of live on any of them.

Returning to Earth, Harry and Alice downloaded all the informaton and videos they had taken. This time, they landed in Tokyo where they sat down near the end of the field near fences that were massed with people wanting to get a view of a space ship.

A truck came to the ship and gathered them to take them to a secure hanger. Guards got out of the truck to ensure no one messed with their ship.

Inside the conference room of the hanger, Captain Archer was there with one of his Majors who had brought her little girl. Field Marshal Shultz and Admiral Kivinski were also present. Once the greetings were over, Field Marshal Shultz explained the latest with the Colonial fleet.

"It is confirmed that one Cylon Base Star is with the Colonial fleet. Captain Archer has also found their course, while slow, is indeed headed in this direction. From comunications, he has also learned the fleet thought they found Earth, and it had been nuked. Obviously, they didn't find us. There is cooperation between the Base Star, that is damaged, and Galactica. It appears that Galactica is also damaged." He paused to scann over their faces. "There are chldren, whole families on every one of those ships in that fleet, and from transmissions, they are not doing well. Food is a critical problem, as is the condition of the ships thmselves. They are falling apart. The UN security council wants to help these refugees. They have authorized contact to offer aid and assistance. With what we know about them, they are not the kindest people in the universe."

"I'll agree with that," Alice said.

Field Marchall Shultz nodded to her. "That is why with our offer, we need to make them understand that there will be no hostilities initiated by them. The Mao found a good planet to live on, and at the moment it is closer to them than to us. Alice, I know we have been running you and Harry ragged. We ask you take on one more mission. We need to see how this fleet will react to you. We would like you to make contact."

Harry immidiatly stiffened. "Why Alice?" he asked in a firm tone.

"For a couple reasons. One and the most important, Alice will not go on Lady Swann. Harry, you will be nearby in case things go south. If they kill Alice, you can ressurect her, correct?"

"The other reason?"

"Alice will be taking a small, old style orbiter to make contact. She will alo be taking Hera Agathon here back to her parents. The Cylon who kidnapped her has asked for asylum. Even if she didn't, she's still a cylon and the war is not over quite yet. Four destroyers are going with you. Alice will ride Montana to the Colonial fleet. Once there, she will go into the fleet on the orbiter and ask to land. Returning Hera, we hope that no matter how they view Alice, they will let her land to return Hera. If the Colonials do not treat Alice with respect, then we'll find out how well our Space Destroyers fare in combat. The immidiate aim will be to disable Galactica and the Base Star, engines and sensors arrays first. We're hoping it does't go that far."

Alice felt Harry clasp her hand. "Hon, you don't have to do this," Harry said gently.

Alice felt like sayng 'no', but the Field Marshal was correct on all points. She cast Harry a sad smile and said, "I'll do it. Harry, we've run from them long enough. If it does go bad, just make sure I'm back onboard Lady Swann before you leave the area."

"I won't leave you," Harry stated and gave her hand a light squeeze.

.

The orbiter Alice was to take into the Colonial fleet was a piece of garbage. It had no sensors, the engine and trusters used a chemical fuel, and the hull was plain aluminum that would reflect Radar nice and strong. Although it was small, it had limited manuvering capabiities with the manual controls. Originally, it was an unmanned orbital drone that had been backfitted to accomodate a fuel tank in the storage compartment and hold a crew of two. Her and Hera.

The Admirals admitted the thing was a flying junk heap. What it was, was disposable and contained no mondern tech anyone could learn from. The only device on board that was modern was the normal radio transmitter so Alice could transmit everything that happened once she landed in the fleet.

A bay on the Montana was large enough to hold the small orbiter. Once in orbit, Alice in a space suit took the orbiter out for a test to be sure the thing worked. Working the manual controls, she was glad the thing held air pressure. She'd had her doubts. The radio worked fine, and like was promised, it handled like a disabled ship many times it's size. Slow acceleration, even slower braking and the manuvering thrusters were sluggish as well. Even judging distances to get back to and get into the bay of the Montana was a chore. At least it worked.

With the test over, the Montana and Lady Swann headed out to meet the Black Pearl who was currently watching the Colonial fleet. Moscow and and Brisbane had left for the Colonials the day before.

.

The weeks after the rebellion were long and hard. The CIC crew on Galactica had lost any enthusiasm about finding a planet to live on. People were commiting suicide. The ship was falling apart, and word was that soon, the Galactica would be stripped of useable parts and set adrift. There was also talk of a rescue attempt to get Hera Agathon back. Cylons were sure Cavil had her, and they had an idea of where the Cylon colony was located.

The Dradis operator watched patrols go out and come in as normal. It was just another day of watching Vipers and heavy Raiders screening the fleet.

Then a strong return came in that tripped the automatic detection alarm. "Unnown contact!" the woman yelled as red lights flashed in CIC as the alar went off. Gettig another strong return, she added, "Contact is inside the CAP screen, inbound!"

"What is it?" Saul Tigh shouted.

"It's an unknown, no radiologicals, it's moving in slow." she told him.

"Sir, we got a hail from the object."

"Put it on speaker," Tigh ordered.

Alice's voice filled CIC. "This is Alice Potts, Alice Six if you prefer. I have Hera Agathon with me. Request to land."

"Watch that contact, get a Viper out there to make a visual," Tigh ordered. He then called the Admiral.

.

The fleet was coming into visual view. Alice was glad, for she had no other way to tell her where they were. She had sent out a hail twice and finally got an answer.

"Alice, this is Galactica. Maintain course and speed, you will be escorted momentarily."

Alice eyed the Base Star and the now visible Galactica. Minor thrusters and keeping the ships bracketed between the window supports helped keep her on course. Pointing out the window, Alice asked, "Hera, do you know which ship is yours?"

Hera sat up and said, "Those are really small. I live on a big ship."

"They are big, sweety, we're still far away," Alice explained. To her left the nose of a Viper appeared close by. The pilot came into view. "Oh look! Do you know him?" Alice asked as she pointed to the pilot.

Hera looked and waved. The pilot waved back.

"It's her! It really is Hera!" the Viper pilot radioed.

"Daddy!" Hera said as she waved. "Alice, it's Daddy!" she said, beaming a smile.

Alice got on the radio. "This thing handles like a big rock and I have no guidance or sensors, could you guide us in?"

"I thought you had a stealth ship?" Helo asked.

"I do. I was given this piece of crap to return Hera and talk to whoever is leading you now," Alice told him.

"You certainly didn't fly out here with that thing."

"I didn't, and how I did get here is classified," Alice said.

"Classified?"

"I'll explain once I land. I can land, correct?"

"Galactia, Helo, escort Alice into the port landing bay."

"Will do. Alice, will you need assistance?" Helo asked.

"Might not hurt."

Two raptors launched and came up on either side of the orbiter. Since they were all but drifting, one raptor turned to shine a light on the orbiter. The other opened it's side hatch. Two figures went EVA. Alice dropped the landing gear to give then someting to hook a tow cable to. The other raptor moved behind them. On the radio, Alice heard them hooking cables to the rear landing gear so they had control of the orbiter.

It was still a pretty hairy landing. The raptors guided Alice in well enough that her POS orbiter didn't scrape the ceiling and came down on the deck with only a solid bump.

Going into the hanger bay, a large crowd was there to meet them. A few centurions were in the crowd near some biocylons. Alice was towed in and brought to a stop. "Thanks guys, I needed that," she told them. She then blew out a long huff and turned to Hera. "Come on, let's see if your Mommy is here."

Alice exited her ship and lifted Hera out. She watched another oriental Eight cry out, "Hera!" and the two ran towards each other to meet in a tight, sobby hug. While this happened, Alice eyed the collection of Colonials and Clyons that had come to greet her. Many has smiles on their faces.

Lee Adama approached her with his hand out. Alice folded her arms across her chest and cast them all an even stare. Lee paused. "Don't speak, just listen." Alice told them.

"I am not here for myself. The people we are living with asked me to speak to you," Alice said as she scanned the large group that had come to meet her. "I don't like any of you but I suppose it is only right to give you fair warning. At least, that is what the leaders of Earth told me."

"We've seen Earth, it's a wasteland," Lee told her.

Alice eyed him. "Are you going to listen or not? You can hear what I have to say, or I can get back on my ship and leave," she stated.

"Please, talk to us," Caprica asked.

Alice eyed her, then Lee. He nodded. Satisfied they were going to let her speak, she said, "The Earth Harry and I found is not a wasteland. At least, not yet. It is a violent planet. Powerful winds they call Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Cyclones and Typhoons cause wide spread devastation. The Earth shakes with quakes that destroy buildings and cause Tsunamis, giant waves that wash far inland to scower the land and wipe out everything in their way. Volcanos exist all over that world that can erupt at any time and belch out hot, melted rock and large clouds of hot, poisonous gasses that flow across the land and throw ash high into the air to block out light from the planet's star, turning the weather cold. So cold plants can't grow, and animals starve if they don't die from inhaling the ash.  
People die also. In one city called Pompei, the petrified remains of the people caught in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius are still there, their bodies lie in twisted agony from their deaths. From my studies, I learned the Earth has gone through several extinction level events over time. Events that wipped out all but a small portion of life on Earth."

Alice eyed the crowd as she spoke. Everyone was watching her with blank looks of disbelief. "I am telling you this so you understand one thing clearly. The people on Earth have evolved to be intelligent and tough. They prepare for disaster. I believe due to their sometimes extreme environment, they also have an aggressive territorial imperative and a very strong survival instinct. There is always a war going on someplace on Earth, and has been for thousands of years. As far back as records have been kept, there has been a war raging. They are constantly upgrading weapons and creating new ones. Most weapons even twenty years old, they consider obsolete. They make someting newer and better to fight with.

About eighty cycles ago, they had their second world war. Not long after that, they had weapons equivalent to what you have now. Since then, Earth weapons have vastly improved. Missiles are no longer the prime long range weapon. It's directed energy weapons. Their projectile guns are being replaced with electromagnetic guns that need no propellant yet travel faster than a propellant driven projectile and hit with incredible force. They use nuclear power and have thousands of nuclear weapons. They are also prepared for nuclear war. Say, if a Base Star came and rained nukes down on them, yes, you'd kill many people. You would also make the rest very angry. Many would survive and deliver a counter strike I doubt you would be prepared for."

Alice stopped to glare at Caprica. "These are people you do not want to frack with. They did not have space flight capability until Harry and I showed up. They never thought seriously about space travel. Yes, they toyed with the idea, sending out probes and visiting their moon and neighboring planets for scientific reasons. There was never any true drive to go into space for them. I told them about the Cylon Colonial war. They have taken spaceflight seriously now, and believe me, they learn fast. Already having most of the required skills and material, they made their own versions of my shuttle into capable warships you have no hope of seeing them coming. They already had stealth technology, and the drives were only discovering a new use for items they already had.  
Their weapons are just as good, if not better than yours. They also know war, they have it down to an art. If they are not fighting, they are practicing to fight, and constantly testing new devices and tactics. In case you are wondering, yes, there's a few Earth ships that came with me. They are watching you now."

"Excuse me," Laura Roslyn asked, "If these people are so hard, how did you manage to meet them?"

Alice cast Laura a tight smile. "We stayed away from the planet and talked to them." Casting Caprica a hard eye, she said, "We didn't rush in and attack, nor did we grab someone and haul them away against their will. They were curious about us and after communications to learn a couple of their languages as they learned ours, we were allowed to land."

Forming a real smile, Alice said, "For how ... hard Earth people can be, they have learned many things that none of you have realized. Talking is better than pointing a gun and demanding your will be followed. They don't care what we are, only that we are pleasant and willing to work with them. We have a nice home now and a safe place under it. Yes, our house may be blown away by the wind, shaken into rubble by an Earthquake, or deluged with water."

Her smile faded as she added, "What it won't be is broken into by soldiers and raided for everything we've got. Harry and I take the risks every other person on Earth faces. We can accept that, for we also help each other. They are our neighbors, and we are theirs. As they do with us, we stand with our neighbors."

Once again, Alice scanned the crowd of cylons and colonials. "Here is the proposal from Earth that leaders have asked me to convey. If you truly want refuge, and are willing to work with us, you are welcome. There will be no warships allowed within Earth's solar system, and no Earth ships will be molested by you. Earth is getting overcrowded, and a few planets are being considered for colonies. You help us, we help you. That's the deal."

Lee shifted in place as did Admiral Adama. "We can't leave our fleet unprotected," Admiral Adama stated.

Alice shrugged and said, "I told you what the conditions are. What you do, is up to you. Personally, I'd just as soon see the lot of you turn around and go away. As the saying goes, the ball's in your court. Make your choice." Alice then turned and walked back to her ship.

"Thank you!" Lee called.

Alice stopped and raised an eyebrow. "For?"

"Returning Hera. And if possible, we would like to speak with one of the Earth leaders," Lee told her.

"I'll ask. So you know, I brought Hera back with me so you wouldn't shoot at me," Alice said flatly.

Holding Hera, Athena called out, "Even so, thank you for bringing my baby back!"

Alice nodded to her. "You're welcome."

"Please don't leave yet!" Caprica said, running towards Alice. Alice turned. Caprica stopped a respectable distance from her. "I must tell you, you were right from the very start. Cavil is deranged. We were all fools for following him,"Caprica pleaded. "I'm asking you not to hate us. Please, sister, can we at least be friends?"

Seeing Caprica's stricken face, Alice immidiatly wondered what her angle was. "You admit you were fools?" Alice asked.

Caprica nodded. "I do. I truly wish I knew about you much sooner. You were right in getting away from us. I can see that now." Motioning to Lee Adama, she added, "We have changed things. We are a part of this fleet now, we've made peace. Please, make peace with us too."

Alice regarded Caprica for a momenet, then said, "Well, since you finally realized Cavil is a waste of good material, I suppose we can give it a shot." She then reached out and drew Caprica into a hug.

"Thank you, thank you!" Caprica sobbed as she held Alice.

The orbiter radio called out, "Alice! Captain Jack here. Everything OK?"

Alice released Caprica and went over to the orbiter. Reaching in she grabed the old style mic. "Captain Jack Sparrow, It's Alice. I am fine. It even looks like there is a real possibility the war may be getting close to being over. Tell Harry to quit biting his nails."

"Aye Lass."

Lee and Caprica cast Alice a strange look. Lee also reaized Alice wasn't bluffing when she said they were being watched. "This Captain Jack thought you might be in trouble?" Lee asked.

"Captain Jack Sparrow," Alice said, correcting him. Reaching into her suit, she pulled out a microphone. "He's listening to everything we say. It must have sent static when I hugged Caprica. If this meeting went south, as the Earth saying goes, you'd be catching some rail gun slugs up your ass. Like I said before, we watch out for each other."

Lee understood that Earth ships had Galactica targeted, and they hadn't picked up a single one. He shuddered at the thought of what multiple stealth ships could do to this fleet. "Alice?" he asked, "Trying to fly that thing must be tough. Can we give you a lift on a raptor instead?"

Alice cast him a smirk. "No, I'll be fine. Besides, when I get back, I want to make the Admiral who sent me out here in this thing, take it for a ride himself." She climbed back into the orbiter.

"Alice! Do you know of any others of us who escaped?" Caprica asked.

"I do, we've picked a few up," Alice told her. "That's how I knew about your civil war. Cavil called a meeting, then did his best to wipe you all out. Typical Cavil sadism."

"Sadism?"

"Yes. It means being cruel and nasty," Alice explained.

Caprica nodded. She offered, "Stay safe, sister."

Alice replied, "Stay safe, friend," and closed the window/hatch. The only way the ship was able to move forward was with the main engine. That would be bad for this room full of people. She opened her hatch again and called out, "Excuse me, can I get a push into the launch bay?"

After her speach, it was really embarrasing to have to be pushed out by a few Centurions.

.

After Alice left in her antiquated ship, Laura Roslyn said, "I take it we passed the first test."

Admiral Adama looked at her. "You think this was all a test?"

Laura nodded. "Why else send someone who doesn't like us and is vocal about it? Look at the craft she came in. That had to be the oldest space craft they could find. We could have easily done anything with her. The Earth people wanted to see what we'd do."

"Lasers and electromagnetic guns on stealth ships," Lee said in a musing tone. "If we did anything to Alice, I'm sure there would be hell to pay."

"And now we wait to see if anyone else shows up," Admiral Adama said.

.

Her part done, Alice returned to the Montana. The Black Pearl radioed the entire encounter to Lady Swann. Harry then left for Earth to pass the encounter on to the UN Security Council and the Admiralty. Once Harry had the Admiral's instructions, and Alice back on board, he returned ro the Colonial fleet.

.

In CIC, Admiral Adama and President Adama watched the ocassional jump flare happen. No ships presented themselves before or after the jump.

"There's no way to tell if they are coming or going," Lee noted.

Admiral Adama let out a grunt. "What's more disturbing is how close they are. Damn near on top of us. We're getting no comms from them either. Too bad we can't coax them to go take care of Cavil and his toasters."

"Sir, I have a hail. It's from the Black Pearl. An Earth ship."

Lee frowned and said, "lt almost sounds like a pirate ship."

Admiral Adama picked up his radio/telephone. "This is Galactica Actual."

"Black Pearl here, Captain Jack Sparrow. I have recieved coordinates to a habitable planet 286 light years from your current position. The Mao is in orbit around that planet. Several ships are being loaded with food and medicine in preperation to bring to your fleet. Representatives from Earth will be coming also to discuss options for cooperation. Shall I pass you the coordintes and inform the Mao that you will be arriving?"

For the first time in a very long time, Admiral Adama smiled. "Yes, please do." He then said, "Puts comms on the speaker, ship wide."

Through the Galactica, Captain Sparrow's voice said, "Right, the planet the Mao is in orbit of is prime territory. Two large oceans, plenty of lakes and green on the land masses and no detectable intellegent species." He then gave the galactic coordinates and finished with, "The Black Pearl will remain here in case any ship has trouble jumping. The Mao will be in close orbit and as visible as possible so we don't bump ships together. Godspeed to you."

There was a brief period of silence on Galactica before what was said settled in. That was followed by a roar of cheering.

.

Once Harry had finished zipping around the galaxy on messenger duty, he landed at Sevastopol where Alice was waiting for him. Admiral Kivinski met the pair as they hugged.

"Well done, Mr. And Mrs. Potts," the Admiral said heartily. "Alice, your bravery is exceptional. We do have one final thing we would like from you."

Alice blanked, Harry let out a huff. He understood Earth needed their help, so he only said, "Yes, Sir?"

"In three weeks, we'd like you to be at the Kremlin to be honored for all the fine work you have done for us and accept postions in the UN Space Command as advisors," Admiral Kivinski said with a smile.

Alice and Harry looked at each other.

"Shall we?" Alice asked hopefully.

"I think we shall," Harry replied.

.

Thankfully, the UN Space Command was in Houston, Texas. With their income, Harry and Alice bought a domed house that was very resistant to the tornadoes that popped up there. With a concrete shell lined by foam, it was very tough and well insulated against heat and cold. They even kept an area inside their home so others could take shelter if a tornado or hurricane was coming.

Best of all, unless there was something critical happening, Harry and Alice could go anywhere in the world so long as they could be reached by phone. That allowed them to also speak at colleges and teach classes. They were also encouraged to keep Lady Swann nearby in case they were needed off-planet. The pay was good, too. Harry and Alice were happy as clams.

Not knowing were this 'Cavil' was, or what he was up to, the UN authorized a total of thirty Space Destroyers. Ten were assigned to the Colonial's new planet to help them with defence, others were set on ptarols and research duty. As mining ships came on line by each country, Space Destroyers added search and rescue to their list of duties. The UNSC became the primary space authority.

Masses of poeple were eager to emigrate to the new planet the Colonials were calling Reach.

 **The End**


End file.
